A professional-democracy media tycoon was sentenced to 5 years and 9 months in jail over two fraud costs linked to lease violations in Hong Kong on Saturday, the newest of a sequence of instances towards outstanding activists that critics say are aimed toward snuffing out dissidents within the metropolis.

Jimmy Lai, who was arrested throughout a crackdown on town’s pro-democracy motion following widespread protests in 2019 and underneath the National Security Law imposed by Beijing, was additionally fined 2 million Hong Kong {dollars} (USD 257,000).

His media firm, Next Digital, revealed the now-defunct pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily.

The publication was compelled to shut following the arrests of its prime executives, editors and journalists final 12 months.

In October, Lai was discovered responsible of fraud for subletting a part of the workplace area to a secretarial agency, which was additionally managed by him, between 2016 and 2020.

The second fraud rely was for letting the identical agency use the media outlet’s workplace area in an alleged breach of lease agreements from 1998 to 2015.

The court docket at the moment dominated the strikes had violated lease agreements with the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corp. and Lai had hidden the truth that the corporate was occupying area within the constructing.

Handing down the sentences on Saturday, Judge Stanley Chan mentioned the violations occurred over 20 years, including Lai didn’t really feel responsible in regards to the strikes.

Lai’s former colleague Wong Wai-keung, who was convicted on a single cost of fraud over the case, should serve 21 months in jail, Chan added.

Lai’s authorized group earlier requested the United Nations to research his imprisonment and a number of prison costs as “legal harassment” to punish him for talking out.

His nationwide safety trial, initially scheduled to start on December 1, was postponed after Hong Kong chief John Lee requested China to successfully block him from hiring a British defence lawyer.

If convicted, Lai faces as much as life imprisonment.

The enactment of the safety regulation has led to the arrests of many outstanding democracy activists within the semi-autonomous Chinese metropolis. Hong Kong, a former British colony, returned to China’s rule in 1997.

It has additionally broken religion in the way forward for the worldwide monetary hub, with rising numbers of younger professionals responding to the shrinking freedoms by shifting overseas.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse workers and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)