Jimmy Lai jailed over lease violation

• Jimmy Lai is a pro-democracy media tycoon in Hong Kong.
• He was found guilty of fraud in a contractual dispute.
• He was sentenced to five years and nine months in prison.

Jimmy Lai, a pro-democracy media tycoon in Hong Kong, was found guilty of fraud in a contractual dispute and sentenced to five years and nine months in prison. This is the latest in a string of trials critics claim are meant to stifle dissent in the city.

Lai, 75, creator of the now-closed Apple Daily newspaper, recently finished a 20-month jail term for his role in pro-democracy marches and unauthorized gatherings in Hong Kong.

First detained after a crackdown on the city’s pro-democracy movement during rallies in 2019, Lai was fined $257k and barred from managing firms for 8 years on Saturday.

His media business, Next Digital, published the now-defunct pro-democracy tabloid Apple Daily, which closed when its executives, editors, and journalists were arrested last year. Lai’s past convictions were due to his role in 2019

Hong Kong democracy protests, but his latest case included one of his companies violating the newspaper’s lease.

Separate national security charges might result in a life sentence.

Lai and former Apple Daily executive Wong Wai-Leung was convicted of fraud in October for a “planned, organized, and years-long” conspiracy.

Prosecutors alleged Lai’s personal consulting firm rented Apple Daily’s office space for publication and printing.

Prosecutors said Apple Daily’s breach of a government lease amounted to fraud.

Judge Chan said the sentencing was for a “simple case of deception” from the 1990s when the lease took effect.

The judge compared co-defendant Wong, 61, to “the getaway driver for a crime”

The judge criticized Apple Daily for exploiting its name as a well-known media organization as a “protective shield” to prevent the landlord from enforcing lease requirements.

He stated the case was unrelated to Hong Kong’s politics or journalistic freedom.

Chan said, “No politics.”

Defense counsel contended the case should have been a civil suit because the square footage was low.

Lai’s legal team sought the UN to investigate his arrest and various criminal accusations as “legal harassment”

Beijing hates Lai, one of Hong Kong’s best-known pro-democracy campaigners.

Apple Daily criticized China’s Communist Party and supported democracy for years.

The journal failed last year after its assets were stopped and many of its senior workers were charged with Lai under the draconian national security law Beijing implemented in Hong Kong — mostly for campaigning for international sanctions against China.

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