Hong Kong prosecutors lose appeal against acquittal of media tycoon Jimmy Lai in intimidation case
- Lai was accused of verbally threatening an Oriental Daily reporter during a 2017 vigil at Victoria Park, but magistrate cleared him of the charge
- Prosecutors argue magistrate had ‘clearly misdirected herself, misunderstood facts’
Hong Kong prosecutors on Monday lost an appeal against a magistrate’s decision to clear media tycoon Jimmy Lai Chee-ying of intimidating a reporter from a rival newspaper four years ago.
Verdict clearing Jimmy Lai of intimidating reporter ‘perverse’, prosecutors say
On Monday, Mr Justice Andrew Chan Hing-wai of the High Court concluded the trial magistrate had erred in law when considering one of two key elements of the alleged offence: whether Lai had the intention to alarm the reporter.
But the judge ultimately dismissed the appeal after finding prosecutors were not able to prove the magistrate had reached a “perverse” conclusion in respect to the other element: whether Lai had made a threat to physically injure the reporter.
“In order to succeed, the appellant must prove both the magistrate’s findings were wrong,” Chan explained. “The appeal therefore must fail.”
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Hong Kong prosecutors lose appeal against verdict of media tycoon Jimmy Lai intimidation case
During the trial last year, the reporter, named only as “X”, testified that Lai swore at him and threatened to find someone to “mess [him] up”, after he took pictures and videos of the tycoon.
But Magistrate May Chung Ming-sun sided with the defence in finding Lai had lashed out on the spur of the moment after being followed by the reporter for years, and had used a Chinese expression that could hold a variety of meanings without connoting an intent to inflict injury.
Chung also noted the reporter had responded to the alleged threat with a smile, finding that X “was not alarmed”.
On appeal, prosecutors argued that Chung “clearly misdirected herself, misunderstood the facts and took into account irrelevant considerations”, while Lai’s lawyers countered there was no basis to disturb her verdict.
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In a 13-page ruling, the judge said it was open for the magistrate to find that X was not alarmed by what Lai said, but noted that, objectively, an ordinary firm man might give thought to the alleged threat, considering it was repeatedly said by a prominent businessman with ample resources.
Chung, however, had combined the subjective and objective considerations into one and placed too much emphasis on whether X was indeed alarmed, resulting in a conclusion that was “flawed and could not be supported”, Chan said.
But he agreed the word “mess” had many meanings depending on the context of its use, adding there were different ways to mess one up, from the most civilised act of initiating court proceedings to the unlawful deed of causing serious physical injury.
“Since the magistrate was not satisfied that the utterance made by [Lai] was the cause of the [reporter’s] mental stress, that finding, together with my views stated above, marks the end of the prosecution case,” Chan said.
