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Jimmy Lai not guilty of intimidating reporter, High Court maintains
The Department of Justice lost an appeal in the High Court over a magistrate’s decision to clear jailed media tycoon Jimmy Lai Chee-ying's charge of intimidating a local reporter in 2017.
High Court Justice Andrew Chan Hing-wai on Monday dismissed the appeal by the DoJ as it was unable to prove errors of law in two critical elements of the case made by West Kowloon magistrate May Chung Ming-sun in order to overturn the judgment to acquit Lai, 74.
In a written verdict, Chan said he is in no position to reassess evidence and he is only reviewing if a lower court has made an error of law, including misdirecting herself or misunderstood facts.
Therefore the DoJ must prove that Chung has made mistakes in both critical elements to acquit Lai, which includes Lai’s intention to scare the reporter -- identified in court as X, and that he threatened X with personal injury
On the first element, Chan said Chung had mixed up the subjective and objective facts, as she believed that X was not intimidated by Lai’s threat as X can continue filming.
But Chan said given that Lai is a businessman with power, the fact that he had yelled “I will definitely mess you up, I will definitely mess you up” at X twice might have threatened X, as X did not do anything provocative.
He added that Lai had also taken photos of X. On the second element, Chan said the words "I will definitely mess you up, I will definitely mess you up" were ambiguous and not amounting to “threat to injure”.
In September last year, Lai was acquitted by Chung for criminally intimidating an Oriental Daily reporter during the June 4 candlelight vigil at Victoria Park in 2017.
The magistrate’s court was told that the reporter was assigned by Oriental Daily to follow Lai for about three years as part of a "special core group" tracking the media tycoon since 2014.
Lai, 74, is serving a 20-month sentence for four unauthorized assembly cases, he still faced other charges including some in breach of the national security ordinance.
In another development, the Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Authority (MPFA) filed a civil suit in the District Court against Apple Daily Printing last week, requesting the court to order it to pay its mandatory provident funds contributions of about HK$260,000 to employees.
Lai's Next Digital -- the mother company of the now-defunct Apple Daily -- was ordered by the High Court o wind up last week after receiving a petition from the Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po in late September this year.
According to the writ, the MPFA said Apple Daily Printing did not follow the requirements under the Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Ordinance in June this year by paying the employers’ contribution and contribution surcharge for its employees’ MPF, which is about HK$260,000.
The government has frozen HK$18 million of the media company's assets since June 17 as part of a national security investigation. Apple Daily then ceased its online operation on June 23 and printed its last edition on June 24.
In a written verdict, Chan said he is in no position to reassess evidence and he is only reviewing if a lower court has made an error of law, including misdirecting herself or misunderstood facts.
Therefore the DoJ must prove that Chung has made mistakes in both critical elements to acquit Lai, which includes Lai’s intention to scare the reporter -- identified in court as X, and that he threatened X with personal injury
On the first element, Chan said Chung had mixed up the subjective and objective facts, as she believed that X was not intimidated by Lai’s threat as X can continue filming.
But Chan said given that Lai is a businessman with power, the fact that he had yelled “I will definitely mess you up, I will definitely mess you up” at X twice might have threatened X, as X did not do anything provocative.
He added that Lai had also taken photos of X. On the second element, Chan said the words "I will definitely mess you up, I will definitely mess you up" were ambiguous and not amounting to “threat to injure”.
In September last year, Lai was acquitted by Chung for criminally intimidating an Oriental Daily reporter during the June 4 candlelight vigil at Victoria Park in 2017.
The magistrate’s court was told that the reporter was assigned by Oriental Daily to follow Lai for about three years as part of a "special core group" tracking the media tycoon since 2014.
Lai, 74, is serving a 20-month sentence for four unauthorized assembly cases, he still faced other charges including some in breach of the national security ordinance.
In another development, the Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Authority (MPFA) filed a civil suit in the District Court against Apple Daily Printing last week, requesting the court to order it to pay its mandatory provident funds contributions of about HK$260,000 to employees.
Lai's Next Digital -- the mother company of the now-defunct Apple Daily -- was ordered by the High Court o wind up last week after receiving a petition from the Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po in late September this year.
According to the writ, the MPFA said Apple Daily Printing did not follow the requirements under the Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Ordinance in June this year by paying the employers’ contribution and contribution surcharge for its employees’ MPF, which is about HK$260,000.
The government has frozen HK$18 million of the media company's assets since June 17 as part of a national security investigation. Apple Daily then ceased its online operation on June 23 and printed its last edition on June 24.
