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US State Department condemns ‘spurious’ fraud conviction of media mogul Jimmy Lai in Hong Kong
- Spokesman Ned Price accuses city authorities of using national security law to muffle its press corps and shut down critical speech
- ‘Deeply concerned’ about deterioration in human rights protection and ‘systematic dismantling’ of Hong Kong’s autonomy
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Jacob Fromerin Washington
The US State Department condemned Hong Kong’s conviction this week of jailed media tycoon Jimmy Lai Chee-ying on “spurious” fraud charges, accusing the Hong Kong authorities once again of using the national security law as an excuse to muffle the city’s press corps and shut down critical speech.
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“We remain deeply concerned about the deterioration in protection for human rights and fundamental freedoms and the systematic dismantling of Hong Kong’s autonomy under the national security law (NSL),” Ned Price, the State Department spokesman, said in a statement on Wednesday.
“Though Lai’s fraud trial was not on NSL grounds, local authorities nonetheless imposed the NSL’s more restrictive legal procedures for this non-NSL case,” said Price.
An outspoken opponent of the national security law, Lai is already in prison for “unauthorised assemblies” banned by the act. He was found guilty on Tuesday after being accused of defrauding a government-owned enterprise over the unauthorised operation of a consultancy firm at the offices of his now-defunct Apple Daily newspaper.
Jailed Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai found guilty of fraud in office lease case
Hong Kong authorities had already shut down the newspaper in June last year during a crackdown under the national security law. Observers in Washington have viewed the latest charges against Lai as little more than an excuse to punish him further.
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Under US policy, Washington determined in 2020 that Hong Kong was no longer autonomous from Beijing because of the national security law.
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