Hong Kong prosecutors request national security law judge for Jimmy Lai fraud trial over office use
- Prosecution argues for designated judge as case is being handled by national security police, with materials collected during their raid of Next Digital’s offices
- Media tycoon is accused of improperly subleasing office space at Apple Daily Printing Limited
Hong Kong prosecutors have asked for a judge designated for national security law cases to try media tycoon Jimmy Lai Chee-ying on fraud allegations stemming from the use of his office space.
But the application was put on hold as the defence revealed it had yet to examine all the evidence submitted by the prosecution, prompting the judge to adjourn the case for another hearing ahead of next March’s scheduled trial.
The unprecedented request from prosecutors emerged as the founder of Next Digital, which owns the Apple Daily newspaper, returned to court on Thursday alongside two senior executives to face a joint count of fraud, which accuses them of defrauding a government-owned enterprise by breaching land-lease terms.
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Senior public prosecutor Ivan Cheung Cheuk-kan said it would be “safe and prudent” in the long term to list the case before a designated judge – introduced under the Beijing-imposed national security law last year – because he could foresee challenges to the prosecution case.
Cheung said the ongoing investigation was being handled by the police force’s national security unit and part of the prosecution’s case was built on the materials seized from the unit’s high-profile raid of the company’s Tseung Kwan O offices on August 10, 2020.
The prosecutor noted that the defence had already raised parallel proceedings in the High Court, challenging police’s exercise of powers under the national security law during the search and seizure of evidence from the company office.
Cheung said it was likely that the trial court would be required to consider the admissibility of evidence if prosecutors were to rely on those disputed materials. He submitted that this question ought to be handled by a designated judge.
“If a non-designated judge is forced to handle this issue, it would put the judge in a difficult position,” Cheung said.
But District Judge Stanley Chan Kwong-chi, who is also a designated judge, questioned if prosecutors were putting the cart before the horse, when they should be considering whether the case itself was related to national security.
“If it’s just to address difficulties in gathering evidence and proving the case, [you] cannot ask for a designated judge,” Chan said. “The difficulties had nothing to do with national security.”
Chan added that prosecutors could consider whether they had to rely on those disputed materials, in the way they sometimes decided not to prosecute in order to protect the identity of undercover police.
Defence counsel Maggie Wong Pui-kei SC said it remained unclear whether they would challenge the admissibility of evidence, given that they had only received the trial bundles – containing more than 10,000 pages in documentary evidence, not including the unused materials – in mid-April.
She said the most pragmatic way forward would be to give them time to read all documents so they could assess whether the challenge was necessary.
“It’s presumptuous to handle this [prosecution] application now,” Wong said.
The judge agreed to hold off legal arguments and adjourned the case until December 21.
Lai, 73, has been accused of improperly subleasing office space at Apple Daily Printing Limited to a secretarial firm, Dico Consultants Limited, between June 27, 2016, and May 22, 2020.
The prosecution alleged such activity violated the terms of a 1999 land lease by the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation, enabling Dico to evade land premiums and Next Digital to earn rent from Dico.
Royston Chow Tat-kuen, 63, Next Digital’s chief operating officer and chief financial officer, and chief administrative officer Wong Wai-keung, 59, have been accused of involvement in the same fraudulent scheme.
The case has been set for a 25-day trial to begin on March 14 next year.
