Hong Kong publisher Jimmy Lai in poor health, son says

Sebastien Lai, the son of imprisoned Hong Kong newspaper publisher Jimmy Lai, this week urged U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer to ask Chinese authorities to release his father. The younger Lai said his 77-year-old father is diabetic and has endured more than 1,700 days in solitary confinement in a Hong Kong jail where his health is deteriorating because of hot, humid conditions. Jimmy Lai has been jailed since 2020 on what his supporters call fabricated charges over his pro-democracy stance. His legal team earlier this month filed an urgent appeal with the United Nations, citing an immediate risk to his health and noting that other diabetic prisoners of similar age had also died in Hong Kong prisons. In an op-ed for The Telegraph, Fortify Rights Senior Director Benedict Rogers said Starmer had a duty to secure Lai’s release because he is a British citizen. Numerous human rights organizations and lawmakers have also called on Starmer in recent months to negotiate Lai’s freedom.

What are the accusations against Lai? Hong Kong authorities arrested Lai five years ago for allegedly colluding with a foreign country to endanger national security and conspiracy to defraud. As part of a larger clampdown on a pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong, the government in 2021 forcibly closed his newspaper Apple Daily, and a judge that year sentenced him to more than a year in prison for his involvement in peaceful protests in 2019. Another court sentenced him to more than five years in prison for fraud. His trial in the collusion case ended last month, and he had not been sentenced for those charges as of Tuesday. A UN working group last fall determined Lai’s detainment was unlawful and arbitrary and called for his immediate release. 

Dig deeper: Read Erica Kwong’s story about Lai and other activists, including Christians, who are behind bars for pro-democracy efforts.