As pro-democracy publisher Jimmy Lai spoke in his defense at a Hong Kong court Tuesday, his son Sebastien Lai was in Geneva calling for the United States and other world leaders to help secure this father’s release.
Speaking on Tuesday at the latest hearing in his national security trial, Lai, 77, denied any intention to incite violence among protesters.
He defended an opinion piece published in 2019 in the now-shuttered Apple Daily newspaper that he founded in which he suggested that pro-democracy protesters establish a leadership structure to weed out those who wished to engage in violence during protests that year.
“By saying they should choose a leadership group, [it means that] they should put down some principle or bottom line for the valiant acts which, basically, is for them to stop the violence,” Lai said in court.
The British national has been standing trial for more than a year on charges of collusion with foreign forces and sedition under Hong Kong’s national security law. Lai rejects the charges, which foreign governments and press freedom groups have said are politically motivated.
Hong Kong authorities deny that the trial is unfair and have previously told VOA that the government respects press freedom and the rule of law.
Lai has been in solitary confinement since late 2020. Sebastien Lai raised concerns about his father’s health as he advocated for him in Geneva.
“I ask that you join my call to free Jimmy Lai and champion him for all he’s given in the hope of freedom,” the younger Lai said Monday at the annual Human Rights and Democracy summit in Geneva.
When Beijing’s national security law was enacted in Hong Kong in 2020, Sebastien Lai said his father knew he would be a target.
“But he refused to leave,” he said. “Six decades after landing on the shore of this island in pursuit of freedom, he decided to stay and stand with his fellow protesters.”
Jimmy Lai was born in Guangzhou, China, and fled to Hong Kong when he was 12. He worked in a garment sweatshop before eventually founding the successful clothing brand Giordano. He later moved into media, founding Apple Daily in 1995.
Both the United States and Britain have criticized Hong Kong’s case against him. During his presidential campaign, Donald Trump in October said he would “100%” get Lai released, without specifying details.
Sebestien Lai said Trump’s comment gave the family “a lot of hope.”
But he cautioned that time is running out for his father, who has diabetes. The publisher’s international legal team says he isn’t receiving adequate medical care, which authorities deny.
“His body is breaking down,” Sebastien Lai told Reuters ahead of the summit. “Time is running out for my father.”
Lai’s international legal team urged global leaders to stand up for press freedom at the U.N. Human Rights Council next week.
“How the world responds will send a vital message to authoritarians across the world,” Caoilfhionn Gallagher, head of Lai’s international legal team, told Reuters.
Gallagher and her team at the London law firm Doughty Street Chambers have faced significant harassment for their role defending Lai.
On social media and in email, Gallagher has faced threats of death, rape and dismemberment, The Guardian reported. She has also been targeted with hundreds of attempts to hack her bank account.
The Bar Council, the representative body for barristers in England and Wales, expressed concern about the harassment.
Some information in this report came from Reuters.
