It was not enough for Chinese authorities in Hong Kong to force Jimmy Lai to unload his budding business empire and shut down his popular newspaper, Apple Daily. They’ve had to get him on charges large and small, and a court has just sentenced him to 69 months for renting out part of his office space to one of his companies.

The office space deal would appear to be the type that’s routine in Hong Kong’s fast-moving business environment, but a judge in handing down sentence said Mr. Lai had failed to show the requisite guilt. Not that contrition would have mattered in a system in which the media has no scope for criticizing the government.