Hong Kong’s top court has rejected an appeal by Jimmy Lai, the Catholic activist and newspaper publisher, and six pro-democracy advocates for a conviction of staging an unauthorised assembly amid street protests in 2019. Source: UCA News.
A lower court had earlier overturned the conviction but a bench of five judges sitting on the Court of Final Appeal upheld the initial verdict, dismissing defence arguments that called into question whether the conviction was proportionate to fundamental human rights protections.
Mr Lai, 76, and three former lawmakers, Lee Cheuk-yan, 67, Leung Kwok-hung, 68 also known as “Long Hair”, and Cyd Ho, 70, were jailed for between eight and 18 months.
Pro-democracy veterans Martin Lee, 86, Margaret Ng, 76, and Albert Ho, 72 were given suspended sentences.
The defence argument was based on a principle laid out by two non-binding decisions of Britain’s Supreme Court known as “operational proportionality.”
Chief Justice Andrew Cheung and Permanent Judge Roberto Ribeiro held that the decisions should not be followed in Hong Kong.
“Their Lordships noted that those decisions were made in contexts which do not arise in Hong Kong and incorporate features of no local relevance,” a summary of the judgment read.
Mr Lai has been held in solitary confinement for more than three years and is serving a five-year and nine months sentence for convictions related to a leasing contract tied to his former newspaper’s headquarters, which closed in mid-2021 after police raids.
He is also facing an additional trial under Beijing’s imposed national security laws.
Two months ago, two British judges, Lawrence Collins and Jonathan Sumption, resigned from the Court of Final Appeal. Mr Sumption said the former British colony was becoming a totalitarian state and its rule of law had been “profoundly compromised”.
Mark Clifford, president of the Committee for Freedom of Hong Kong recently said that Lai, who converted to Catholicism in 1997, cannot get a fair trial in Hong Kong.
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Jimmy Lai’s appeal dismissed by Hong Kong’s top court (UCA News)
