AFP by way of Getty PicturesThe daughter of Jimmy Lai, the pro-democracy tycoon jailed in Hong Kong, has expressed considerations about her father’s deteriorating well being in jail, saying that his fingernails “typically fall off” and his tooth are rotting.
Lai, 78, has been detained since December 2020 and faces life in jail. Earlier this month he was convicted of colluding with overseas forces beneath the town’s controversial nationwide safety regulation (NSL).
Chinese language authorities have denied that Lai has been mistreated in jail, and mentioned he’s in “good well being”.
The BBC has seen a letter written by Lai’s household urging UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer name for Lai’s launch when he meets Chinese language President Xi Jinping subsequent month.
His daughter Claire Lai, who’s in exile in London, instructed the BBC that she fears she “might by no means see him once more”.
“After all I fear that my father goes to be a martyr, and I do not need him to be a martyr. However I might not be right here right this moment, I might not be talking out if I did not suppose this was his finest likelihood of reuniting with our household.”
She described her father as an “extraordinarily strong and robust man” when he went to jail, however has over the past 12 months he has “misplaced a major quantity of weight”.
“He’s diabetic, he has coronary heart points which he by no means had previously. He has fingernails that flip purplish gray and typically fall off. He has tooth which are rotting.
“He has again and waist pains. Some days it is painful for him to face. Typically he cannot stand. And a few days he cannot even get off the bed.”
Lai’s household has on a number of events flagged considerations about his deteriorating well being. Lai’s son, Sebastien, instructed the BBC earlier this 12 months that his father’s “physique is breaking down”.
A spokesperson for the Commissioner’s Workplace of the Chinese language International Ministry in Hong Kong said earlier this month that Lai’s “lawful rights and pursuits have been totally protected, and he’s in good well being”.
They added that “a secure, humane, acceptable, and wholesome custodial setting in accordance with the regulation” has been offered for Lai.
Lai, a UK citizen, is probably the most outstanding individual to be charged beneath the NSL, launched in 2020 in response to large pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong.
Beijing defends the regulation as mandatory to take care of stability in Hong Kong, however critics say it has successfully outlawed dissent.
Lai was accused of lobbying overseas governments to impose sanctions on Hong Kong and China. He was additionally discovered responsible beneath a separate colonial-era regulation of publishing seditious materials in his now-defunct Apple Every day newspaper.
After Lai’s conviction earlier this month, the UK condemned it as “politically motivated persecution”, saying that he had been “focused… for peacefully exercising his proper to freedom of expression”.
“The UK has repeatedly referred to as for the Nationwide Safety Legislation to be repealed and for an finish to the prosecution of all people charged beneath it,” the International, Commonwealth and Improvement Workplace mentioned.
Of their assertion earlier this month, Chinese language authorities mentioned Western makes an attempt “to affect judicial verdicts by means of political stress blatantly trample on the spirit of the rule of regulation and totally expose their hypocritical ‘double requirements’. The Chinese language aspect firmly opposes this.”
Starmer’s journey to China in late January 2026 would be the first by a UK Prime Minister since 2018.