Sebastien Lai by CPJ Photos / Flickr
CV NEWS FEED // Sebastien Lai, the son of Catholic journalist Jimmy Lai, decried a Hong Kong prison’s treatment of his father in a recent interview with Canadian publication the National Post.
CatholicVote previously reported that Jimmy Lai, 77, is currently on trial after being accused of violating the Chinese Communist Party’s controversial national security law through the criticisms of the government found in his newspaper, Apple Daily.
Speaking to the National Post, Sebastien warned that “[Hong Kong is] now a place where the government believes itself to be infallible … All they want to do is ‘security.’”
Sebastien said that his father has been imprisoned for almost four years and subjected to harsh conditions, including “solitary confinement, sweltering temperatures, lack of daylight, no independent medical care for his diabetes.”
“On one hand, I’m incredibly proud of him. I can’t really imagine how hard it is, the strength it takes to do this for 30 years, when you could very well argue that he could have had a much more comfortable life just bending the knee,” Sebastien said, later describing his concerns for his father’s condition:
He’s practically being baked alive. It breaks my heart. He’s an elderly man now, but given the conditions, it wouldn’t be surprising if he just passed away in jail … It’s not easy to know that your father could die at any moment and that he would never get that time (in jail) back.
Sebastien also highlighted that his father, a Catholic, has not been able to receive the Eucharist in prison.
According to the National Post, Sebastien, his British legal advisors, and the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights are on a media tour to raise “awareness of his father’s plight, and put pressure on the Hong Kong government and courts to show some leniency.”
The National Post additionally reported that the Canadian House of Commons and the Canadian Senate called for Lai to be freed last year. The Commons reportedly said that Lai “stands for so many of the values championed by Canadians.”
While Lai is not from Canada, several members of his family live there, and Sebastien said his father owns hotels in Ontario.
