On Feb 26 in Hong Kong, the territory's Court of Appeal overturned a lower court ruling that had found media tycoon Jimmy Lai guilty of a fraud offence and imposed a custodial sentence. The appellate panel - Judges Jeremy Poon, Anthea Pang, and Derek Pang - issued a judgment granting the appeal application brought by Lai and another defendant in the case.
In a press summary of their judgment the judges wrote that they gave the appellants leave to appeal their convictions, allowed those appeals, quashed the convictions and set aside the sentences that had been handed down by the lower court.
Lai had been sentenced in December 2022 to five years and nine months in prison after being found guilty of breaching the lease terms for Apple Daily’s headquarters. The conviction was based on findings that Lai had concealed the operation of a private company, Dico Consultants Ltd, within the building.
Another executive at Next Digital, Wong Wai-keung, aged 61, was also found guilty of fraud in the same proceedings and was jailed for 21 months.
The court's short public statement confirms that both the convictions and the sentences previously imposed were set aside by the Court of Appeal in the decisions issued by the three-judge panel. Beyond the appellate court's declaration that leave to appeal was granted and the convictions quashed, the judges' press summary is the only outcome described in the public notice referenced here.
Contextual note - The factual record available in the court summary specifies the appellate outcome, the names of the three judges, the December 2022 sentence given to Lai, the role of Dico Consultants Ltd in the lease-breach finding, and the 21-month jail term handed to Wong Wai-keung. The press summary is cited as the source of the appellate court's actions; no additional procedural details or subsequent legal steps are provided in that summary.
This report presents the court's decision and the specific sentences that were previously imposed, as described in the court's public summary of the judgment.