UK, UN and EU deplore ‘monumental injustice’ of Jimmy Lai’s 20-year jail sentence

Son says Hong Kong media figure, 78, fears dying alone while legal team say Lai is now world’s highest profile political prisoner

The UK, the UN, EU and rights groups have condemned the sentencing of the pro-democracy activist and publisher Jimmy Lai, a British citizen who has been jailed for 20 years in Hong Kong for national security convictions that critics say are politically motivated.

Yvette Cooper, the UK foreign secretary, said: “For 78-year-old Jimmy Lai, 20 years is an effective life sentence, following a politically motivated prosecution under a law that was imposed to silence China’s critics. The Hong Kong authorities must end Jimmy Lai’s appalling ordeal and release him to be with his family.”

His son Sebastien said Lai feared dying alone while his legal team called him the world’s current highest profile political prisoner.

The UN rights chief, Volker Türk, said the verdict was incompatible with international law and must be quashed. “This outcome highlights how the vague and overly broad provisions of Hong Kong’s national security legislation can lead to being interpreted and enforced in violation of Hong Kong’s international human rights obligations,” he said.

Anitta Hipper, an EU spokesperson, said the bloc “deplores” the outcome of Lai’s years-long prosecution and called for his immediate and unconditional release.

Lai is the founder of Apple Daily, a popular pro-democracy newspaper that was forced to close in 2021, the year after his arrest. Once one of Hong Kong’s richest men, Lai was unusual among Hong Kong’s elites for also being an outspoken critic of the Chinese Communist party.

He was arrested in 2020, weeks after the imposition of a draconian national security law in Hong Kong. The law was introduced by Beijing in response to months of pro-democracy protests in the territory, which Lai and his newspaper had supported. Critics say that the law criminalises dissent. The Chinese and Hong Kong authorities say it was necessary to restore stability to the city, which has plummeted down media freedom lists since the law was introduced.

The 78-year-old British citizen was sentenced on Monday to 20 years in prison after being convicted on one count of conspiracy to produce seditious material and two counts of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces. The collusion with foreign forces charges were brought under Hong Kong’s punitive national security law.

Lai’s jail term is the harshest that has been handed down for a national security case in Hong Kong. The Chinese Nobel peace prize winner Liu Xiaobo was sentenced to 11 years in prison for subversion of state power in mainland China. He died in hospital in 2017, surrounded by security guards.

Lai’s son Sebastien said on Monday that while expected, news of his father’s long sentence had felt worse than he had anticipated, but it still brought him “relief” that the “farce” of his father’s trial had ended.

“Dad knew that this was coming even when he was first arrested, and even when he started campaigning 30 years ago,” said Sebastien, who hopes he will be able to see his father again. “My father feels fear the same way anyone feels fear. He fears not seeing his family again, he fears dying alone.”

While he said he did not doubt the will of No 10 to secure his father’s release, he said the visa-free travel agreement between the two nations announced after Keir Starmer’s visit to Beijing had felt “a bit tone deaf” with his father still in prison. On Monday, the UK also announced an expansion to its dedicated visa scheme for Hongkongers to come to the UK.

Starmer said he raised Lai’s case when he met China’s president, Xi Jinping, in Beijing in January. But it is not clear what, if any, progress the UK has made towards securing Lai’s release.

Sebastien Lai said: “What’s the upside for us? If we can’t even get my father out, what does this relationship signify?. I’m in a situation where I just have to put my faith in my country and in this government.”

The prime minister’s official spokesperson said on Monday: “We condemn this politically motivated prosecution. We’re clear that Beijing’s national security law was imposed on Hong Kong to silence China’s critics, and we’ll continue to raise this case at the highest levels of the Chinese government, as indeed the prime minister did directly with President Xi.”

Sebastien Lai said Beijing was creating a “martyr hero” in his father. Jonathan Price KC, a member of Lai’s international legal team in London, said the sentence was a “monumental injustice” and described the former media tycoon as “the most high profile political prisoner currently in the world”.

Thibaut Bruttin, the director general of Reporters Without Borders, said Lai was a symbol of media freedom in Hong Kong and it was a “dark day for those who care about free press”. “Today, democracy is in jail in Hong Kong,” Bruttin said.

Lai’s conviction and heavy sentence were widely anticipated. Hong Kong has a near 100% conviction rate for national security offences and Lai is considered to be the most high profile political enemy of the Chinese Communist party in Hong Kong, a semi-autonomous territory that is controlled by Beijing.

Lai’s sentence was welcomed by the Hong Kong and Chinese authorities.

John Lee, Hong Kong’s chief executive, said Lai “has committed numerous heinous crimes, and his evil deeds were beyond measure. The severe sentence of 20 years’ imprisonment imposed on him manifests that the rule of law is upheld and justice is done, and also brings great relief to all.”

Lin Jian, the spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry, said Hong Kong upheld the rule of law and Lai was the “mastermind” behind the unrest that shook the territory in 2019 and 2020. He called the prosecution “legitimate, justified, lawful and beyond reproach” and urged other countries not to interfere in China’s internal affairs.