AP Gets Rare Glimpse of Jailed Hong Kong Pro-Democracy Publisher Jimmy Lai

HONG KONG (AP) — Jimmy Lai, a former newspaper writer and certainly one of Hong Kong’s most distinguished pro-democracy activists, spends round 23 hours a day in solitary confinement in a maximum-security facility whereas he awaits a trial that would ship him to jail for all times.

In unique pictures taken by The Related Press in latest weeks, the 75-year-old Lai may be seen with a ebook in his palms sporting shorts and sandals and accompanied by two guards at Stanley Jail. He appears to be like thinner than when he was final photographed in February 2021.

Lai is allowed out for 50 minutes a day to train. In contrast to most different inmates, who play soccer or train in teams, Lai walks alone in what seems to be a 5-by-10-meter (16-by-30-foot) enclosure surrounded by barbed wire beneath Hong Kong’s punishing summer season solar earlier than returning to his unairconditioned cell within the jail.

The writer of the now-defunct Apple Daily newspaper, Lai disappeared from public view in December 2020 following his arrest beneath a safety regulation imposed by Beijing to crush a massive pro-democracy movement that began in 2019 and introduced a whole bunch of 1000’s onto the streets. Greater than 250 activists have been arrested beneath the safety regulation and vanished into the Hong Kong authorized system.

Photographers used to have the ability to catch a glimpse of activists in remand at one other detention heart in Lai Chi Kok as they have been taken to and from courtroom. Authorities began blocking this view in 2021 by making the detainees stroll via a lined pathway.

In a separate case, an appeals courtroom is because of rule Monday on a problem that Lai and 6 different activists have had filed in opposition to their conviction and sentencing on fees of organizing and participating in an unauthorized meeting almost 4 years in the past. The others are Lee Cheuk-yan, Margaret Ng, Leung Kwok-hung, Cyd Ho, Albert Ho and Martin Lee.

Lai, a British nationwide, is accused of colluding with international forces to hazard nationwide safety and conspiring to name for sanctions or blockades in opposition to Hong Kong or China. He additionally faces a cost of conspiracy to print seditious publications beneath a colonial-era regulation more and more used to crush dissent.

He was scheduled to go on trial final December, nevertheless it was postponed to September whereas the Hong Kong authorities appealed to Beijing to block his attempt to rent a British protection lawyer.

“My father is in jail as a result of he spoke reality to energy for many years,” Lai’s son, Sebastien, stated in a Might assertion to a U.S. authorities panel, the Congressional-Govt Fee on China.

“He’s nonetheless talking reality to energy and refusing to be silenced, despite the fact that he has misplaced every little thing and he could die in jail,” Sebastien Lai stated. “I’m very proud to be his son.”

Lai is allowed two 30-minute visits by relations or pals every month. They’re separated by glass and talk by cellphone.

In a separate case, he was sentenced in December to virtually six years in jail on fraud fees.

In Might, a court rejected Lai’s bid to halt his safety trial on grounds that it was being heard by judges picked by Hong Kong’s chief. That may be a departure from the frequent regulation custom China promised to protect for 50 years after the previous British colony returned to China in 1997.

Lai, who suffers from diabetes and was recognized with hypertension in 2021 whereas in detention, is handled as a Class A prisoner, a standing for inmates who’ve dedicated essentially the most critical crimes comparable to homicide.

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