Hong Kong: Jimmy La, a democratic journalist in Hong Kong, has been sentenced to five years and nine months in prison.
He has been in jail for 20 months and was convicted once more on Saturday on charges of fraud in two cases related to renting office space. Lai is the apple of the eye of the Chinese-controlled government in Hong Kong. La has several cases under the National Security Act for supporting democrats.
Lai was previously arrested under China’s national security law for participating in pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong in 2019. Then the Chinese government fined him 2.5 lakh dollars. The Apple Daily, published by La’s media outlet Next Digital, ceased publication last year following the arrest of officials and journalists.
The punishment was handed down on the ground that between 2016 and 2020, a part of the office was leased to another company owned by La and the media outlet was allowed to operate on the premises of the same company, in violation of the terms of the lease agreement. Sentencing judge Stanley Chan said in his ruling that the breach of the law was deliberate and that Lai used his media company as a cover for fraud.
