Overview
- Judges Jeremy Poon, Anthea Pang and Derek Pang allowed the appeals, quashed the convictions and set aside the sentences in the lease-related fraud case.
- The court found prosecutors failed to prove false representation and said Apple Daily Printing had no duty to disclose the lease breach, adding the trial judge erred and liability could not be attributed to Lai as a matter of law.
- The overturned case involved Dico Consultants using office space at Apple Daily’s headquarters, for which Lai had received a five-year-nine-month sentence in 2022.
- Lai remains in custody on a separate national security case carrying an effective 20-year term, with only two years that had overlapped with the now-quashed fraud sentence.
- Hong Kong’s Department of Justice said it will study the judgment to consider whether to appeal.