Hong Kong court overturns Jimmy Lai fraud conviction

A Hong Kong appeals court has overturned media tycoon Jimmy Lai’s 2022 fraud conviction, quashing the convictions and setting aside the sentences in a rare legal win for one of the territory’s best-known pro-democracy figures.

According to NBC News, the court found prosecutors failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that Lai and co-defendant Wong Wai-keung made false representations in a case tied to the lease for Apple Daily’s premises. The Guardian reports the earlier case centred on allegations that a consultancy firm controlled by Lai used office space that the media group rented for publishing and printing purposes.

The reversal changes little about Lai’s immediate situation. He remains in prison under a 20-year sentence handed down this month in a separate national security case, where he was convicted of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces under the security law imposed by Beijing in 2020, as well as publishing seditious materials under older legislation, NBC News reports. The Guardian notes the national security sentence is the harshest penalty yet for such offences in Hong Kong.

The sequencing of sentences shows why the fraud appeal mattered at all. In the national security case, judges allowed the sentences to run concurrently for only two years, with the remaining 18 years to be served after the fraud term, the Guardian reports. Removing the fraud conviction could therefore reduce the total time on paper — even if the national security judgment still dominates.

The legal win also sits alongside ongoing enforcement that does not depend on the fraud case. The Guardian reports that on the same day a court sentenced the father of a wanted activist, Anna Kwok, to eight months under the national security law after he attempted to terminate her insurance policy and withdraw funds — a case built around financial restrictions on “absconders.”

International politics continues to orbit the case. NBC News reports U.S. President Donald Trump has previously vowed to secure Lai’s release, and the White House says Trump will visit China from March 31 to April 2 to meet Xi Jinping, where the issue could come up. The UK foreign secretary Yvette Cooper has called for Lai’s release on humanitarian grounds, according to the Guardian.

Hong Kong’s government says Lai received a fair trial and appropriate medical care, NBC News reports. His family has said the sentence could mean he dies in prison.

The appeals court overturned a lease-related fraud conviction; Lai’s 20-year national security sentence remains in force.