Hours after Jimmy Lai, a businessman and pro-democracy newspaper owner in Hong Kong, was found guilty on national security and sedition charges, his daughter Claire Lai told reporters in Washington, D.C., she hopes international pressure can spare her father from spending the rest of his life in prison.
“We expected the verdict,” she told CBS News. “As much as you can expect that, you can only be so ready for it. So I am grieving.”
Lai, 78, was found guilty on three charges: one sedition charge and two charges of violating the National Security Law, a controversial Hong Kong law instituted in 2020 following pro-democracy protests in 2019. The charges were conspiracy to commit collusion with a foreign country and conspiracy to publish seditious material.
Lai is the founder of Apple Daily, a pro-democracy newspaper in Hong Kong that was often sharply critical of the Chinese government and its growing influence over the city. The paper closed in 2021 after police raided the newsroom, arrested reporters and froze the publication’s assets. Jimmy Lai was arrested in 2020 and held in custody since.
Jonathan Price, part of Jimmy Lai’s international legal team, said the results of the trial were unsurprising, but argued they reflect China’s reneging of commitments to the rule of law in Hong Kong and agreements made between the British and Chinese governments when Hong Kong was returned to China in 1997. The government in Beijing had agreed to grant Hong Kong autonomy until at least 2047, but it has increasingly exerted control over the enclave.
“It’s 855 pages of obfuscation, fluff, diversion with some colorful language, but no substance,” he told CBS News. “It’s extraordinary that a document of that length involving a case about someone who ran a press organization doesn’t mention substantively, press freedom, freedom of speech, freedom to protest, or any human rights.”
Claire Lai last spoke to her father in June of this year, and said his condition has noticeably deteriorated. She described that his nails are changing colors and falling off and his teeth are rotting. She also worries about his diabetes and heart palpitations. She blames his prison conditions and solitary confinement for his deterioration.
Claire Lai, her family and her legal team fear that appeals could take over 8 years and fear Jimmy Lai may not live long enough to endure the process.
“My father does not have eight years. If we wait to the end of the appeals process, there will not be a man at the end of that process,” she told CBS News.
On Monday, President Trump and British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper both called for the release of Jimmy Lai.
In the Oval Office, Mr. Trump said, “I feel so badly. I spoke to President Xi about it, and I asked to consider his release. He’s not well. He’s an older man, and he’s not well. So I did put that request out, we’ll see what happens.”
Cooper emphasized that Jimmy Lai is a British citizen and told Parliament that she had summoned the Chinese Ambassador after hearing the verdict.
“But for the sake of Jimmy Lai, for his family, but also for the people of Hong Kong, for the joint Declaration we signed, and for the rule of law, we will not relent on this,” she said. “Joined by nations across the world, we call again for the immediate release of Jimmy Lai.”
Earlier in the year, Claire Lai met with members of Congress on Capitol Hill, culminating in a bipartisan letter asking for her father’s release.
As the holidays near, Claire Lai remembers the few times she saw her father a year since 2020, on their birthdays and Christmas. She said she hopes she can see her father again someday, without their conversations recorded and without armed prison guards standing by.
“One of the many things I’ve learned from my father is that you have to face adversity and difficulties with a certain degree of cheer and spirit,” she told CBS News. “My father has shown that not even his failing health can alleviate him of the burden of truth, and that’s why he chose to take the stand for so many days.”
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