Jimmy Lai’s lawyers appeal to UN over media mogul’s health amid drawn-out Hong Kong trial

The Hong Kong government has condemned a team of international lawyers for raising the issue of media mogul Jimmy Lai’s deteriorating health in a maximum security prison with the United Nations, calling it “unreasonable smears”.

Lai’s international legal team and his son Sebastien Lai in an appeal to the UN Special Rapporteur said the circumstances under which the 76-year-old British citizen was kept in prolonged solitary confinement posed “a grave risk” to his physical and mental health and to his life.

Lai has been in detention since December 2020 as he is being tried in a delayed and gruelling national security trial on charges of sedition and collusion with foreign powers. Lai was first detained at Hong Kong’s maximum-security Stanley Prison but was transferred to the Lai Chi Kok Reception Centre at the beginning of the year.

The concerns were exacerbated after observers noted that the pro-democracy newspaper tycoon appeared “clearly trembling and feeling unwell” during a 3 June hearing on the delayed trial, the appeal said.

Detailing his health issues, his legal team said Lai appeared in court showing “significant loss of weight and increasing frailty” and he was seen shivering.

The lawyers alleged that Lai had been denied access to specialised medical care for his long-standing health concern of diabetes.

The legal team said a “lack of specialised medical care increases the risk of long-term complications linked to his diabetes due to the failure to properly manage his condition”.

“International law is clear: it is always unlawful for a prisoner to be subjected to torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, and States must protect prisoners from such treatment,” King’s Counsel Caoilfhionn Gallagher said.

His son urged the UN and the UK government to take immediate action to ensure his release “before it is too late”.

“My father has endured so much for standing up for his beliefs and for the people of Hong Kong. He has been imprisoned for over three and a half years and faces the risk of dying behind bars,” he said.

“Today, for the first time, we are filing an Urgent Appeal with the United Nations over my father’s appalling and inhumane prison conditions. His treatment by the authorities poses a very serious risk to his health and even to his life.”

The Hong Kong Free Press (HKFP) reported that the Hong Kong government did not directly address whether Lai was given specialist care while in detention.

In a statement, the government said it “strongly rejects unreasonable smears by external forces regarding treatment received by Lai”.

It said any accusation concerning Lai not receiving appropriate treatment in prison “cannot be further from the truth and is only spreading rumours to create trouble”.

A government spokesperson told HKFP that each jail cell was “of adequate size and designed to ensure proper lighting, ventilation, and fittings essential for maintaining health”.

On 12 August, a British judge upheld the conviction against Lai and six fellow accused for their role in the 2019 anti-government protests.

Lai, the founder of the now-shuttered Apple Daily newspaper, is facing the prospect of life in prison if found guilty of sedition and collusion with foreign powers under the city’s national security law.

He has pleaded not guilty on two charges of collusion with foreign forces and one count of conspiring to publish seditious material.

Lai is expected to testify when his trial resumes in November.