Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai will spend the next six months in prison after he was denied bail on Thursday on what critics say are trumped-up charges designed to remove one of the government’s most vocal critics.
Lai is a well-known figure in the territory’s democracy movement and his media company Next Digital publishes the China-sceptic newspaper Apple Daily in Hong Kong and Taiwan.
The 71-year-old was arrested on Wednesday on charges of fraud for using his offices for purposes not stated on the lease, alongside two of his Next Digital colleagues, CEO Wong Wai-keung and Chief Operating Officer Chow Tat-kuen.
Al Jazeera’s Divya Gopalan reports from Hong Kong.
