Hong Kong, Jimmy Lai trial: son Sebastien at European Parliament to call for his release

Brussels – Media mogul and democracy activist Jimmy Lai “is spending his last days in a maximum-security prison in Hong Kong and risking his life” for standing up for the values the European Union holds most dear. This is how the activist’s son, Sebastien Lai, described the plight of the 77-year-old businessman and British citizen, who was arrested in August 2020 for violating the controversial national security law enacted by Beijing in the special-status region that was the scene of a vast protest in support of democracy the previous year.

The founder of the Apple Daily (which has ceased publication) is already serving a five-year, nine-month prison sentence for a fraud conviction related to a breach of contract. In April 2021, he was sentenced to 14 months for organising two unauthorized protests in 2019. The following month, a sentence of another 14 months was triggered for participating in another demonstration, also held in 2019. Last Nov. 28 (2024), the European Parliament issued a resolution condemning the imprisonment of Jimmy Lai and 45 other activists from Hong Kong who were victims of the National Security Act.

Sebastien Lai called for his father’s release, recalling how “In this time of geopolitical insecurity, the European Union has real leverage over China and must act now.” The young activist, returning from the Geneva Summit on Human Rights and Democracy, had already addressed his appeal to world leaders, including Donald Trump and Keir Starmer. Also accompanying him today (Feb. 19) is Mattew Caruana Galizia, son of Daphne Caruana Galizia, the Maltese journalist killed in 2017 after revealing the news of the involvement of ministers Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri in the Panama Papers scandal. “The freedom of the press is a value that must be defended and implemented globally and not only within the EU,” Mattew stressed.