Professional-democracy campaigner and British citizen Jimmy Lai would possibly die in a Hong Kong jail, his son has informed Sky Information as he urges Sir Keir Starmer to push for his quick launch.
Sebastien Lai informed Wilfred Frost on Sky News Breakfast his 77-year-old father’s well being is deteriorating rapidly as he continues to testify in a trial the place he’s accused of breaking Hong Kong’s nationwide safety legal guidelines, 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 overseas forces”, which was delayed by three years earlier than beginning in December 2023.
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The present UK authorities mentioned it has urged China to launch him throughout visits to Beijing to hunt nearer relations, however Sebastien Lai mentioned the state of affairs is now pressing.
“He is nonetheless robust mentally and spiritually,” Sebastien Lai mentioned.
“However he is within the physique of a 77-year-old, and it is simply a kind of conditions the place we won’t wait.”
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Sebastien Lai handed a letter for the prime minister to No 10 Downing Road
Jimmy Lai, who has diabetes, has misplaced a big quantity of weight and has appeared more and more frail at his trial. His authorized staff mentioned he has been denied unbiased medical care, is barely allowed out of his cell for 50 minutes a day and, as a religious Catholic, has been denied the Eucharist.
Sebastien Lai delivered a letter to 10 Downing Road on Monday morning, asking for a gathering with Sir Keir to get his father, who has solely ever had a British passport, launched instantly.
He mentioned his father’s case is a “litmus check” for the federal government to see if it should stand as much as China for a British citizen who’s in jail “for peaceable campaigning and journalism”.
Jimmy Lai throughout a protest in 2019
“It might take lower than three hours for them to place him on a aircraft and ship him again residence to the UK,” he mentioned.
“So if they don’t seem to be even keen to do one thing like this in such a clear-cut case, the place he would possibly very effectively die in jail, then what else can we anticipate from them?
“I imply, how can we anticipate a fair or truthful relationship with a rustic that is not even keen to launch considered one of our residents from very blatant persecution?”
He added {that a} assembly with Sir Keir would present the Hong Kong authorities Jimmy Lai’s case is being handled “with the utmost precedence, to point out they cannot hold mistreating my father the best way they have been doing”.
‘Hong Kong’s turn into a policed state’
Sebastien Lai mentioned the Hong Kong authorities has been maintaining his father, who has diabetes, in such terrible circumstances “as a result of they imagine they might get away with it”.
Jimmy Lai’s case is a significant sticking level within the authorities’s relations with China, with Sir Keir saying securing his launch is a “precedence” – whereas making an attempt to revive commerce relations with Beijing.
The billionaire, who owned the pro-democracy paper Apple Each day and was a well-recognized face throughout the 2019 protests, has given his testimony for 48 days in Hong Kong, with 22 of these dealing with cross-examination by authorities attorneys.
He’s anticipated to proceed his testimony this week however his son mentioned he doesn’t understand how lengthy the case will go on for.
Sky Information has contacted the prime minister’s workplace and the Chinese language authorities for a remark.
