Hong Kong’s pro-democracy media tycoon, Jimmy Lai, has won an appeal against a fraud conviction in 2022, which had seen him sentenced to nearly six years in jail.
On Thursday, Hong Kong’s Court of Appeal quashed the convictions of Lai and another defendant who had been accused of illegally subletting office space.
But the 78-year-old will remain in prison as earlier this month, he was sentenced to 20 years in jail for colluding with foreign forces under the city’s national security law.
Lai, a fierce critic of China and one of the biggest figures in Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement has been detained since 2020.
Lai’s daughter Claire described the ruling on Thursday as “nothing more than a PR move by the Hong Kong authorities”.
“No one should be fooled into thinking.. [it] is anything more,” she told the BBC.
“The rule of law is broken there, and my father is still unjustly imprisoned and will remain so for nearly 20 years unless urgent action is taken to secure his release.”
Caoilfhionn Gallagher KC, who leads Lai’s international legal team, echoed this, saying the decision “changes nothing” and that Lai risks dying in prison because of ill health.
“No one should be fooled into thinking that this fraud appeal belatedly succeeding suggests the Hong Kong system operates fairly or justly,” she told the BBC.
Lai’s Battle With Hong Kong Authorities
In 1995, Lai founded Apple Daily, a local tabloid that was critical of Beijing and became Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy paper. The paper was shut in 2021 after Lai and other key staff members were arrested.
The paper was at the heart of Lai’s fraud trial. Prosecutors argued that Lai breached lease terms by allowing his private consultancy firm to operate in office space that Apple Daily had rented.
Rights groups and Lai’s family have raised concerns about his deteriorating health in prison. Last December Claire Lai said that her father’s teeth were rotting and his fingernails “sometimes fall off”.
But Chinese authorities maintained that Lai was “in good health” and received “appropriate” care.
Supporters claim that Jimmy Lai has long been facing political persecution through the courts. The overturning of the sentence on Thursday has been met with some scepticism by some.
“Even if [he] is released at 96 rather than 98, it doesn’t make much difference,” one supporter who attended court told the BBC.
