Fraud conviction overturned for Hong Kong's Jimmy Lai, ex-media mogul and democracy activist

An appellate court in Hong Kong reversed fraud convictions against former media tycoon Jimmy Lai. It was a rare victory for the prominent pro-democracy activist, who is a fierce critic of Beijing and has faced a litany of legal battles. In:

An appellate court in Hong Kong reversed fraud convictions against former media tycoon Jimmy Lai. It was a rare victory for the prominent pro-democracy activist, who is a fierce critic of Beijing and has faced a litany of legal battles.

Lai, 78, an outspoken critic of China's ruling Communist Party who founded the now-defunct Apple Daily, will stay in prison because he was sentenced to 20 years weeks ago after being convicted in another case brought under a China-imposed national security law. 

He was convicted in December of conspiring to collude with foreign forces to endanger national security and conspiring to publish seditious articles, which carried a maximum penalty of life in prison. His sentence was the longest punishment brought to date since China imposed the national security law in 2020, essentially silencing Hong Kong's dissent.  

That came more than five years after he was arrested under the law, which was used in a yearslong crackdown on many of Hong Kong's leading activists. His plight has evoked grief over the city's loss of press freedom and sparked an international outcry, though the city's authorities insist his case had nothing to do with media independence.

The conviction that was overturned Thursday was from an earlier fraud case in which prosecutors alleged that a consultancy firm controlled by Lai had used office space that his media business rented for publication and printing purposes.