Feb. 26 (UPI) -- Imprisoned Hong Kong newspaper magnate and democracy activist Jimmy Lai on Thursday won an appeal against a fraud conviction for which he was serving an almost six-year sentence handed down in 2022.
The convictions of Lai, who is a British citizen, and codefendant Wong Wai-keung on charges they illegally sublet office space in a government-owned media park were quashed and their sentences set aside by the Hong Kong Court of Appeal.
However, the 78-year-old Lai will remain in prison, serving a 20-year sentence handed down three weeks ago for collusion with foreign forces and conspiracy to print and distribute seditious material under a draconian national security law imposed by Beijing.
The Hong Kong government hailed the appeal, saying it demonstrated that the courts of the territory, which is a special administrative region of China, exercise judicial power "independently, and all judgments handed down by the courts are open and transparent."
"The District Court conducted the trial impartially. While the defendants lodged an appeal in accordance with the law, the Court of Appeal allowed the appeal with a detailed explanation on the reasons. Under the fair and impartial legal system of Hong Kong, both the trial court and the Court of Appeal handled the case openly and transparently," a government spokesman said in a news release.
