Hong Kong's Court of Appeal has overturned the conviction and sentence of pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai for a fraud offence.
He was sentenced in December 2022 to five years and nine months in jail after being found guilty of breaching the lease terms of his Apple Daily newspaper's headquarters.
The court found he had concealed the operation of a private company, Dico Consultants Ltd, in the building.
Another Next Digital executive, Wong Wai-keung, 61, was found guilty of fraud and jailed for 21 months.
Judges Jeremy Poon, Anthea Pang, and Derek Pang said in the judgement that they allowed the appeal application from Lai and another defendant in the case.
"The Court of Appeal gave them leave to appeal against their conviction, allowed their appeals, quashed the convictions and set aside the sentences," the judges wrote.
Lai, 78, was also found guilty in late 2025 of using his independent media outlet to produce seditious materials against Hong Kong and China.
Lai, who remains in prison, has been one of the fiercest critics of China under President Xi Jinping, and has maintained his innocence.
His case has become the most high-profile example of China's crackdown on rights and freedoms in Hong Kong, under a sweeping national security law imposed after mass pro-democracy protests in 2019.
Lai's sentencing 'unjust'
The US, Britain, Australia, the European Union, Japan and Taiwan had all previously expressed concerns about Lai's sentencing and the impact it would have on his health.
Elaine Pearson, the Asia director of Human Rights Watch, said the 2022 sentence was "cruel and profoundly unjust" and that it was a death sentence.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the sentence "unjust and tragic", saying it showed the lengths to which China would go to silence advocates of basic freedoms in Hong Kong.
Lai's son, Sebastien Lai, had appealed to foreign governments, in particular Britain, to do "much more" to secure his elderly father's release.
"Much more needs to be done and quickly because, if not, he's going to pass away in prison," Sebastien Lai said.
Both Jimmy and Sebastien Lai are also British citizens.
A spokesperson for UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said the government had raised human rights concerns, including Jimmy Lai's case with Beijing.
"Having a policy of not engaging at all with China is not a policy that benefits Britain or British citizens," the spokesperson told reporters earlier this month.
