UK – Support Jimmy Lai, Feb. 09, 2026
Today, Monday 9th February 2026, Jimmy Lai was sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment following his conviction on 15th December 2025 of sedition and two charges of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces under the controversial National Security Law (“NSL”) by a Hong Kong court.
At 78 years old and in rapidly declining health, Mr Lai, a British citizen and prisoner of conscience who has already endured over five years’ imprisonment in solitary confinement, faces spending his final years in prison. This draconian sentence is a punishment for nothing more than Mr Lai’s public interest journalism and peaceful pro-democracy campaigning. As the 855-page judgment convicting him in December 2025 made clear, Mr Lai was convicted for his work as editor and publisher of the popular, pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily and his advocacy for democracy and the rule of law in Hong Kong. His son, Sebastien Lai, described the day of the verdict as “a dark day for anyone who believes in truth, freedom and justice.” Today is another dark day for justice.
Responding to his father’s sentence, Sebastien Lai said, “Sentencing my father to this draconian prison sentence is devastating for our family and life-threatening for my father. It signifies the total destruction of the Hong Kong legal system and the end of justice. After more than five years of relentlessly persecuting my father, it is time for China to do the right thing and release him before it is too late.”
Mr Lai’s daughter, Claire Lai, said, “This is a heartbreakingly cruel sentence. Over the last five years, I have watched my father’s health deteriorate dramatically and the conditions he’s kept in go from bad to worse. If this sentence is carried out, he will die a martyr behind bars.”
Lead counsel of the international legal team, Caoilfhionn Gallagher KC, added,
“Today marks the final blow to the rule of law in Hong Kong. Sentencing Jimmy Lai – already aged 78 – to two decades behind bars is an affront to justice, and the culmination of over five years of malicious lawfare against a courageous, elderly British citizen and prisoner of conscience. Now that this sham trial is finally over, we call on leaders from around the world to speak with one voice in their demand for China to free Jimmy Lai so he can come home to his family in London at last.”
Jimmy Lai’s prosecution and conviction have been condemned by multiple countries worldwide, including the UK and US Governments, all G7 nations, the European Union, and 24 countries in the Media Freedom Coalition.
