This photo taken on April 1, 2022 shows the Central Government Offices in Hong Kong. (ANDY CHONG / CHINA DAILY)

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government strongly condemned and opposed on Sunday the misleading comments of the US Department of State over the sentence of an HKSAR court laid down according to the law on the fraud case involving former media tycoon Jimmy Lai Chee-ying.

Interfering in the fair trial, the absurd comments had totally disregarded the facts, a spokesman for the HKSAR government said in a statement.

“This is a political interference in, and malicious slander on, Hong Kong's judicial system,” the statement reads.

Lai, founder of the now-defunct Apple Daily newspaper, was sentenced on Saturday to five years and nine months’ imprisonment and fined HK$2 million ($256,000) over two fraud charges linked to violation of lease conditions.

As pointed out in the judgment, the nature of the (fraud) case (involving former media tycoon Jimmy Lai Chee-ying) purely concerns fraud and should not be viewed as being tied with any political considerations, as it would be unfair to the prosecution and defense as well as to the whole community.

HKSAR government

The spokesman stressed that the defendant had fully exercised his right to defend himself and that the sentences were imposed by the court, with judicial power exercised independently, based on facts and evidence after open trials.

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The detailed reasons for sentence were contained in the publicly available judgment, the spokesman added.

The spokesman also said that the case concerned was a fraud case and had nothing to do with freedom of the press or freedom of speech.

“As pointed out in the judgment, the nature of the case purely concerns fraud and should not be viewed as being tied with any political considerations, as it would be unfair to the prosecution and defense as well as to the whole community,” the statement reads.

The spokesman pointed out that under Article 85 of the Basic Law, the courts of the HKSAR shall exercise judicial power independently, free from any interference.

The HKSAR government strongly urged the US to stop interfering in the independent exercise of judicial power in, and the internal affairs of, the HKSAR, the spokesman said.

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“In pursuit of its political interests, the US has blatantly interfered in the fair trial by the court, seriously undermined the spirit of the rule of law and contravened international standards and international law. The use of numerous fallacies by the US is nothing but exposure of its hegemonic bullying, resulting in a loss of its credibility,” the statement reads.