Hong Kong media magnate Jimmy Lai was sentenced to five years and nine months in prison again on Saturday, December 10. FounderApple DailyA newspaper critical of Chinese authorities that was forced to close in 2021, Mr. Lai recently spent twenty months behind bars for participating in demonstrations and unauthorized gatherings.
The 75-year-old has yet to be arraigned “collusion with foreign powers”Violation of a strict national security law imposed by Beijing carries a life sentence.
Jimmy Lai’s previous stints in prison have been linked to his role in the pro-democracy protests that rocked China in 2019, but his conviction on Saturday violated the terms of his office lease. Mr. Lai and Wong Wai-Keung, ex-executiveApple DailyThey were convicted of fraud in October in what Judge Stanley Chan described as a scheme “Planned, organized and sustained over many years”.
‘Do not associate with politics,’ says judge
Mr. for his personal use. Prosecutors said a consulting firm run by Lai occupied offices rented by Apple Daily for publishing and printing. This, they said, was a violation of the rent norms signed by the government agency and was fraudulent. For their part, defense attorneys argued that the case should be a civil matter rather than a criminal one, adding that the stakes involved were low. Mr. Wong, 61, was sentenced to twenty-one months in prison.
“Do not associate with politics”, the judge stressed that the case had nothing to do with freedom of the press. Jimmy Lai, one of the leading figures of the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong, has long resisted the authorities in Beijing. For years, his newspaper has been critical of Chinese authorities, which was forced to close in mid-2021 after its funds were frozen and some of its executives and its founder were arrested.
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