Pressure Mounts to Free Hong Kong's Jimmy Lai After 20-Year Sentence
Global pressure is building to free Hong Kong media mogul and pro-democracy figure Jimmy Lai after a Hong Kong court sentenced him to 20 years in prison under a controversial national security law.
Jimmy Lai Sentenced: A Blow to Hong Kong Press Freedom
REPORTER:
It’s hard to tell through the tinted black glass—but this police bus is likely carrying Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai to what’s essentially a life sentence.
REPORTER:
Lai is one of Hong Kong’s sharpest critics of China—and he used his now-shuttered paper, the Apple Daily to give voice to these views.
REPORTER:
Over five years after his arrest, he’s been convicted of seditious publishing and conspiracy to collude with foreign powers. The 78-year-old's been sentenced to two decades in prison, the most severe punishment yet under Hong Kong’s controversial national security law, despite health problems including diabetes and high blood pressure.
REPORTER:
The pressure to free Lai is already on, though—starting with Lai’s family. Lai is a British citizen, and his son wants him released to live out his days in the UK.
Lai’s son:
The least Hong Kong and China can do is to send a 78-year-old man who's in ill health on a plane and send him back here. We're not asking the world. This isn't a hard thing for them to do. It's a very easy thing for them to do and it's not a big thing for them to do.
REPORTER:
Governments are stepping in too. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has called for Lai’s release—and with US President Trump set to visit Beijing in April, Lai’s fate may be on the agenda.
REPORTER:
And though UK PM Keir Starmer's recent visit to Beijing doesn’t seem to have swayed China, the UK’s foreign secretary promised “rapid engagement” now the sentence is passed.
REPORTER:
It’s not just the west. Japan’s chief cabinet secretary has voiced, quote, serious concern about Lai’s case.
REPORTER:
Taiwan has also been swift in its condemnation.
Taiwan official:
This case again confirms that under China’s so-called “one country, two systems” arrangement the freedom and rights the Hong Kong Basic Law guarantees are a mere formality. Hong Kong courts have become a tool for political purges.
REPORTER:
And the United Nations wants the sentence quashed, too.
UN spokesperson:
Our Office has reviewed the verdict against Jimmy Lai and is concerned that it criminalizes the exercise of freedom of association and expression, including media freedoms – rights which are protected under international human rights law.
REPORTER:
From Beijing, the view is that Lai is a Chinese citizen who endangered China’s national security. But rights groups see it as a stark ending, with the Committee to Protect Journalists calling it “the final nail in the coffin” for press freedom in Hong Kong.
REPORTER:
Lai’s family lawyer sums up the harshness of the ruling that is causing such a stir outside of China.
Lai’s family lawyer:
He was convicted of crimes that amount to no more than campaigning peacefully through his media properties, supporting gentle incremental approach to further democratization of Hong Kong. Nothing more, no violence. No threat of violence, no treachery. It's just a man standing up for the values of the old Hong Kong in which he grew up.
REPORTER:
Lai’s sentence begins. But his case is far from over, as calls by powerful people to let him go free build.
