Jimmy Lai still has a chance of bail: scholar

University of Hong Kong legal scholar Simon Young says media tycoon Jimmy Lai still has a chance of being granted bail while awaiting trial on national security charges, despite a ruling against him by the Court of Final Appeal.

Young, a former director of HKU’s Centre for Comparative and Public Law. told RTHK’s Hong Kong Today that the top court’s ruling on an appeal by prosecutors against a decision to grant Lai bail gave the national security legislation “proportionate and restrictive effect”.

The court on Tuesday ordered Lai’s return to prison after ruling that the Court of Appeal “misconstrued” a provision of the law which sets out that judges must not grant bail unless they are confident that a suspect will not threaten national security.

But the court left the way open for Lai to make a new application for bail, and Young told RTHK’s Mike Weeks that he believed a further application stood a good chance of success.

“I think so, simply because, although the lower court had gotten it wrong, primarily by saying that there was no difference between an NSL application for bail and an ordinary application for bail. The Court of Final Appeal corrected that: logically, there is a higher threshold,” Young said.

“But, in terms of what evidence you consider, it’s the same. It’s a question about whether there is a risk that Mr Lai would commit national security offences and having regard to very, very stringent bail conditions.

“So if all of those conditions are in place, the risk could well be minimised and bail could still be granted.”

Lai was initially remanded in custody by a magistrate, but was released from detention on bail of HK$10 million on December 23 last year and placed under house arrest.

The Apple Daily founder was also ordered by the High Court not to engage in media interviews or social media postings.

However, the Department of Justice sought leave to appeal against the bail move. The Court of Final Appeal granted leave for the appeal application on December 31 last year, and ordered Lai’s return to prison pending the hearing.