'Time is running out': Son of jailed newspaper editor urges PM to condemn imprisonment ahead of Lammy's Beijing visit

16 October 2024, 19:18 | Updated: 16 October 2024, 19:21

PM says activist Jimmy Lai's release is a 'priority'

The son of a jailed Hong Kong media mogul has said “time is running” out to save his father, as he called on the prime minister to demand his release.

Pro-democracy campaigner Jimmy Lai, who founded Hong Kong newspaper Apple Daily, was arrested in 2020 under new national security laws and has remained in solitary confinement since.

Speaking to LBC’s Andrew Marr, Sebastien Lai, son of the jailed media giant, called on the Government to make his release a top priority.

It comes after Conservative leader Rishi Sunak questioned the government’s commitment to his release in Parliament today. Keir Starmer told MPs Jimmy Lai’s release is a “priority” for his government.

“My father was always my hero,” Sebastian Lai told Andrew Marr.

Sebastien Lai joins James O'Brien following his meeting with Foreign Secretary David Cameron

“My father campaigned for democracy… he knew he needed to defend the freedom of democracy in Hong Kong.

“He wanted full democracy in the region and he campaigned peacefully for 30 years, his newspaper was known to be tough on power.”

For much of their time in Hong Kong, the Lai family were subject to a campaign of bullying and intimidation, Sebastian said, which included their home being firebombed.

This came to a head when millions of pro-democracy citizens took to the streets in 2019, backed by Jimmy Lai’s reporting.

Sebastian continued: “When the government passed its national security law, everyone told my father to leave Hong Kong, he was told that this law was specifically made to target him.

“But he knew that if he left his journalists would be open to persecution and so instead of moving to London, he’s a British citizen, he stays to act as a lightning rod.

“Now he has spent four years in a maximum security prison in solitary confinement, fifteen days is considered long term solitary confinement… absolutely inhuman, he’s 77.”

Sebastian called on Keir Starmer’s government to make Jimmy Lai’s release his number one priority and warned, “time is running out.”

Lei said: “It’s incredibly important I meet to the Foreign Secretary, It also shows the British government stands behind my father.

“At the end of the day, the values that my father stood for are central to this country.

“Truth be told this is about saving my father, the clock is running out, and I am worried that I will never see him again.

“The PM should meet us as soon as possible and make it completely clear to the Hong Kong government that this is a top priority.”