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A Hong Kong court has today sentenced the tycoon jimmy lai to 5 years and 9 months in prison for fraud against a government company for allowing a consulting firm to operate without permission in the offices of the opposition newspaper he founded, the Apple Dailyreported today the press of the former British colony.
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The territory’s court further fined Lai HK$2 million (US$256,888, €243,882) and banned him from running companies for eight years.
The court concluded last October that Lai, 75, concealed “deliberately” the operations of the company Dico Consultants in the dependencies of the already defunct newspaper.
According to the court, the tycoon, who is already in prison for organizing and participating in unauthorized anti-government protests, violated the lease for the Apple Daily offices, which included a clause that prohibited their use for activities unrelated to publishing. and printing of newspapers or magazines.
The judge ruled that Lai had an obligation to ensure that all subsidiary companies operating on the property complied with the requirements of the company that owns the facility.
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The Dico consultancy began operating in the offices of Apple Daily in 1998, where it continued its operations until mid-2020, the Hong Kong newspaper South China Morning Post reported.
The founder of the opposition newspaper Apple Daily is in a maximum security prison in Hong Kong, where he awaits another trial for “collusion” under the controversial National Security Law imposed by Beijing, which took effect on June 30, 2020, a year after an anti-government protest movement rocked the semi-autonomous city.
This law punishes up to life imprisonment for “secession” or “collusion with foreign forces”.
In response to today’s sentence, Cédric Alviani, head of the East Asia bureau of Reporters Without Borders, said: “Illegal protest, fraud, national security crimes: the diversity of the charges brought against Jimmy Lai and the staggering severity of the sentences handed down to him show how desperate the Chinese regime is to silence this symbolic figure of press freedom. in Hong Kong”.
Source: Elcomercio
I am Jack Morton and I work in 24 News Recorder. I mostly cover world news and I have also authored 24 news recorder. I find this work highly interesting and it allows me to keep up with current events happening around the world.
