UK – The Independent, Sept. 09, 2025
Sebastien Lai says international community must send China message that its repressive actions have ‘very real consequences’.
Arrested media tycoon Jimmy Lai will only become a greater symbol for the pro-democracy movement if he dies in Hong Kong prison, his son Sebastien Lai has warned.
Mr Lai, the 77-year-old British national and founder of the now-shuttered Apple Daily, is facing the prospect of life in prison if found guilty of sedition and collusion with foreign powers under Hong Kong’s draconian national security law.
He has pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces and conspiracy to publish seditious material. While the closing arguments in his national security trial concluded last month following a trial that stretched nearly 160 days, it was unclear when the court would deliver the verdict.
Mr Lai’s son appealed for the international community to increase pressure on China to release his father, whose high-profile trial is being viewed as a test of press freedom and judicial independence in the Asian financial hub.
“It’s horrible for me to say this, but if my father dies in prison, he’s actually a stronger symbol of freedom, of martyrdom for your beliefs,” Sebastien Lai told the AFP news agency.
