Pro-democracy campaigner and British citizen Jimmy Lai might die in a Hong Kong prison, his son has told Sky News as he urges Sir Keir Starmer to push for his immediate release.
Sebastien Lai told Wilfred Frost on Sky News Breakfast his 77-year-old father’s health is deteriorating quickly as he continues to testify in a trial where he is accused of breaking Hong Kong’s national security laws, imposed by Beijing in 2020.
He has been in solitary confinement in jail in Hong Kong since 2021 as he awaited the trial for “conspiracy to collude with foreign forces”, which was delayed by three years before starting in December 2023.
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The current UK government said it has urged China to release him during visits to Beijing to seek closer relations, but Sebastien Lai said the situation is now urgent.
“He’s still strong mentally and spiritually,” Sebastien Lai said.
“But he’s in the body of a 77-year-old, and it’s just one of those situations where we can’t wait.”
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Jimmy Lai, who has diabetes, has lost a significant amount of weight and has appeared increasingly frail at his trial. His legal team said he has been denied independent medical care, is only allowed out of his cell for 50 minutes a day and, as a devout Catholic, has been denied the Eucharist.
Sebastien Lai delivered a letter to 10 Downing Street on Monday morning, asking for a meeting with Sir Keir to get his father, who has only ever had a British passport, released immediately.
He said his father’s case is a “litmus test” for the government to see if it will stand up to China for a British citizen who is in jail “for peaceful campaigning and journalism”.
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“It would take less than three hours for them to put him on a plane and send him back home to the UK,” he said.
“So if they’re not even willing to do something like this in such a clear-cut case, where he might very well die in jail, then what else can we expect from them?
“I mean, how can we expect an even or fair relationship with a country that’s not even willing to release one of our citizens from very blatant persecution?”
He added that a meeting with Sir Keir would show the Hong Kong government Jimmy Lai’s case is being treated “with the utmost priority, to show they can’t keep mistreating my father the way they’ve been doing”.
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Sebastien Lai said the Hong Kong government has been keeping his father, who has diabetes, in such awful conditions “because they believe they could get away with it”.
Jimmy Lai’s case is a major sticking point in the government’s relations with China, with Sir Keir saying securing his release is a “priority” – while trying to revive trade relations with Beijing.
The billionaire, who owned the pro-democracy paper Apple Daily and was a familiar face during the 2019 protests, has given his testimony for 48 days in Hong Kong, with 22 of those facing cross-examination by government lawyers.
He is expected to continue his testimony this week but his son said he does not know how long the case will go on for.
