Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai (2nd left) arrives at the Court of Final Appeal in Hong Kong on Dec 31, 2020. (PARKER ZHENG/CHINA DAILY)
Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai Chee-ying was remanded in custody again on Thursday after the city’s Court of Final Appeal granted the prosecutors permission to appeal against his bail, which a High Court judge had granted him last week.
Lai, founder of Next Media, which owns the tabloid Apple Daily, had been denied bail by Chief Magistrate Victor So Wai-tak after he was charged on Dec 2 with fraud and on Dec 11 with violating the National Security Law for Hong Kong
The Court of Final Appeal, presumably led by incoming Chief Justice Andrew Cheung Kui-nung, will hear the appeal on Feb 1. Cheung will succeed Geoffrey Ma Tao-li on Jan 11 after the latter’s scheduled retirement.
Lai, founder of Next Media, which owns the tabloid Apple Daily, had been denied bail by Chief Magistrate Victor So Wai-tak after he was charged on Dec 2 with fraud and on Dec 11 with violating the National Security Law for Hong Kong .
READ MORE: Granting Jimmy Lai bail a heavy blow to rule of law
But on Dec 23, Judge Lee Wan-tang of the High Court granted Lai, 73, bail of HK$10 million (US$1.3 million) and placed him under house arrest pending trial on the two charges.
The three judges said in a written judgment that Lee might have erred in handling Lai’s bail application by misinterpreting Article 42 of the National Security Law for Hong Kong.
The article stipulates that no bail shall be granted to a criminal suspect or defendant unless the judge has sufficient grounds for believing that the criminal suspect or defendant will not continue to commit acts endangering national security.
The court will determine the meaning of the article so that it can decide whether the judge erred in his approach to the granting of bail. During the process, allowing Lai to remain on bail would assume the validity of the High Court judge’s order, thus the court decided to remand him until the next hearing, the judgment read.
In an interview with Orange News, barrister Lawrence Ma Yan-Kwok, who is also chairman of the Hong Kong Legal Exchange Foundation, said the Court of Final Appeal has made the right decision.
Article 42 of the National Security Law was designed to create a high threshold for suspects to be granted bail, as it’s quite difficult to prove the suspects would not collude with foreign forces after being released, Ma said.
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Although the High Court granted Lai HK$10 million bail with restrictions, such as requiring him to hand over his travel documents, and placed him under house arrest, Lai could still contact foreign forces via the internet, Ma said.
Ma said those found guilty of national security offenses could face a maximum sentence of life imprisonment, which puts it in the same category as murder and treason. Normally the court would not grant bail to suspects charged with these offenses.
Lai’s national security and fraud cases will be heard at West Kowloon Court on April 16. He was also charged with several offenses related to the 2019 social unrest, such as organizing and participating in unlawful assemblies.
