Jimmy Lai's mitigation hearing has completed
發佈日期: 2026-01-13 20:21
TVB News
A Hong Kong Court on Tuesday completed the mitigation hearing of onetime media tycoon Jimmy Lai and eight others convicted.
The hearing was originally scheduled for four days.
The court in December convicted Lai of two counts of conspiring with others to collude with foreign forces, and conspiracy to publish seditious articles.
The others have also been convicted of conspiring to collude with foreign forces.
The hearing resumed at West Kowloon Law Courts on Tuesday morning. Jimmy Lai and eight others convicted sat together in the dock. Six of the eight were former Apple Daily employees.
On the second day, the court first heard the mitigation of Chan Pui-Man, Apple Daily's former associate publisher.
Chan pleaded guilty to a count of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces back in 2022.
Chan's defence proposed a starting point for a 10-year sentence with a 50 percent discount.
The defence said Chan was only responsible for the printed form of Apple Daily, while the "more serious parts" of the conspiracy were not her responsibility.
Her barrister argued that Chan had "voiced her concerns" on several occasions and objected to Jimmy Lai's idea about a talk show programme in October 2020.
Judge Alex Lee questioned Chan's objection, saying she objected because the format of the programme didn't match Apple Daily's style.
The defence for Ryan Law, the newspaper's former editor-in-chief, only pleaded for a discount in sentencing, saying his client had pleaded guilty.
For Lam Man-Chong's mitigation, the former executive editor-in-chief, the defence stressed that he was a "subordinate of Chan Pui-Man" and was only responsible for the printed form of Apple Daily's Chinese news.
The barrister described Lam's involvement as a "conspiracy agreement by conduct," and he was "dragged into this deep muddy water" as an employee.
Judge Esther Toh questioned that Lam was involved as an editor when he edited the content.
The defence for Fung Wai-Kong, the former editor-in-chief of Apple Daily's English News, said he was "not included" in the inner circle of the editorial board.
Judge Alex Lee said that the purpose of English News was to reach a wider readership. Lee said Fung's timing of rejoining Apple Daily was crucial because it was a month before the implementation of the National Security Law.
When asked about Fung's mitigating factors Fung's defence said the most "powerful" one was his early guilty plea.
The last mitigation came from the defence of Apple Daily's former editorial writer, Yeung Ching-Kee.
In the submission, the defence said Yeung "should be categorised as the lowest in culpability" regarding the conspiracy, because he was just a "mid-level employee" who took orders from supervisors.
His barrister added that Yeung had shown a clear demonstration of "remorse" by being the first to assist the police investigation voluntarily.
The court has not provided an exact date for the sentencing, but it will inform the parties as soon as possible.
