BREAKING: Hong Kong court quashes Jimmy Lai’s fraud conviction over Apple Daily HQ lease violation

2026-02-26 - 02:34

A Hong Kong appeals court has overturned pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai‘s fraud conviction relating to an alleged lease violation at the now-shuttered Apple Daily newspaper headquarters. His jail term stemming from the case was quashed, though Lai will still remain behind bars, serving 20 years in jail under a separate national security conviction. Jimmy Lai in 2020. Photo: HKFP. The Court of Appeal on Thursday granted the appeals by Lai, 78, against the fraud conviction and sentencing. High Court Chief Judge Jeremy Poon said the prosecution had failed to prove the offence and the trial judge did not consider “certain important matters” related to Lai’s state of mind. In December 2022, Lai was jailed for five years and nine months after being found guilty of letting a consultancy company for his personal use, Dico, to use the office space of Apple Daily, which was rented for the purposes of printing and publishing. During an October 2022 hearing, Judge Stanley Chan dismissed arguments that Lai conducted a “trivial operation” occupying just 0.16 per cent of the premises. He said that the tenant remained responsible for applying for subsidiary licences irrespective of the area of occupancy. Headquarters of Next Digital, the parent company of Apple Daily, in December 2024. File photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP. Co-defendant Wong Wai-keung, former administrative director of Apple Daily’s parent company Next Digital, was sentenced to 21 months in jail. Wong was only appealing against his conviction as he had already served his sentence. Both Lai and Wong did not appear in court on Thursday. Ex-Next Digital executive Royston Chow, also a co-defendant in the case, testified as a prosecution witness in exchange for exoneration. National security sentencing Lai has been behind bars since December 2020. Earlier this month, he was sentenced to 20 years in jail for foreign collusion and sedition – the heaviest sentence so far under the national security law Beijing imposed in 2020 following the 2019 protests and unrest. 18 years of that jail term will be added to Lai’s existing sentence on fraud, which he was expected to complete in June this year before Thursday’s ruling. If he serves his jail terms in full, he will likely be 96 when he is released.