A former editor-in-chief of Hong Kong’s now-shuttered Apple Daily newspaper has filed a high-profile appeal against his 10-year prison sentence. national security the case which saw media mogul Jimmy Lai sentenced to 20 years.
A Supreme Court document showed on Monday that Lam Man-chung, the tabloid’s former executive editor, had filed an appeal against his sentence. The date of the hearing has not yet been set.
Lam, 56, was sentenced to a decade in prison last month for conspiring to cooperate with foreign forces under a national security law imposed by Beijing. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to solicit foreign countries to impose sanctions, embargoes or engage in hostile activities against China and Hong Kong.
He is the second defendant in the case to appeal, following former editorial writer Fung Wai-kong, who is also appealing a 10-year prison sentence.
Record prison terms
Meanwhile Lai will not appeal his conviction and 20-year prison sentenceone of his lawyers, who requested anonymity, told HKFP on Friday.
See also: How national security judges convicted Jimmy Lai, from health records to foreign cooperation
Lai, who pleaded not guilty, was convicted in December of two counts of conspiracy to collaborate with foreign forces and one count of conspiracy to publish seditious material.
His 20-year prison term is the heaviest sentence so far imposed under the Beijing-imposed security law.
Lam, Fung and six other co-defendants pleaded guilty ahead Lai’s trial began in 2023. Five of them testified for the prosecution against Lai and were sentenced to up to seven years and three months in prison.
Lam and Fung did not testify for the prosecution and received only a one-third reduced sentence for their guilty pleas.
Ryan Law, the former editor-in-chief of Apple Daily, who also did not testify at Lai’s trial, was similarly sentenced to 10 years in prison. He did not file a complaint.
