Jimmy Lai
Detained Since: August 10, 2020.
Charges: Illegal Assembly and criminal intimidation, and fraud. Conspiracy to collude with foreign forces (trial ongoing).
Sentence: 5 years and 9 months in prison. (Sentenced to 20 months in prison, 13 months in prison, and 5 years and 9 months in prison in separate trials, served concurrently.)
- Previous Charges: Organizing and participating in banned Tiananmen Square vigil in June 2020 (Overturned August 2023).
Biography: Jimmy Lai is the most prominent political prisoner in Hong Kong, targeted because of his pro-democracy activism, and his work as a journalist and publisher. He is a Hong Kong businessman and fearless critic of the Chinese Communist Party, who has been detained and imprisoned on numerous charges since August 10, 2020, and has been continuously detained since December 2020. He is a longtime advocate for the Hong Kong pro-democracy movement. He founded Apple Daily, the largest Chinese language pro-democracy newspaper in Hong Kong. Apple Daily had a strong anti-corruption, pro-democracy editorial stance and was frequently critical of the Chinese authorities. He has already been prosecuted and sentenced to lengthy sentences of imprisonment for his peaceful participation in pro-democracy protests in violation of his rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly (sentences which concluded in September 2022). In October 2022, in an unprecedented case, he was convicted and sentenced to nearly six years’ imprisonment on spurious allegations of fraud said to arise out of the breach of a lease – the first time a landlord and tenant dispute has been the subject of a criminal prosecution in Hong Kong.
He is now being prosecuted for alleged sedition and alleged conspiracy to collude with foreign agents under the under the controversial National Security Law (NSL) for his journalism and his pro-democracy activities, in clear violation of his rights to freedom of expression and to a fair trial.
Jimmy Lai is 76 years of age and has been held in prolonged solitary confinement since December 2020, for entirely peaceful conduct, in exercise of his fundamental rights to freedom of expression and opinion, and of peaceful assembly. Given his age and the fact that he is diabetic, there are serious concerns for his physical well-being. He faces a potential life sentence under the NSL, depending upon the outcome of his current trial.
Grave concerns have also been raised by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on torture regarding the prosecution’s reliance on evidence from a key prosecution witness, Andy Li, allegedly procured through torture.
Lai was first arrested on December 13, 2014, because of his peaceful activism with the Umbrella Movement, which organized sit-ins in support of Hong Kong independence. He experienced personal threats and attacks over the next several years, including a fire bomb attack on his home in January 2015.
Lai was arrested on February 28, 2020, for illegal assembly and suspicion of organizing, publicizing, and participating in unauthorized assemblies for his peaceful attendance in the 2019-2020 Hong Kong protests. He was released on bail and convicted on April 1, 2021, and sentenced to 14 months in prison. He was sentenced again on May 28, 2021, to an additional 14 months in prison, amounting to 20 months total as some of the sentences were served concurrently.
In June 2020, China’s parliament enacted a new national security law for Hong Kong, which established new categories of crimes intended to suppress political activism. It also allowed for extradition from Hong Kong to mainland China. On August 10, 2020, Lai was arrested for alleged collusion with foreign forces, which was a newly established crime under the national security law. Prosecutors claim that Lai has published articles critical of the authorities and supportive of pro-democracy protestors, and that he had requested foreign sanctions against Hong Kong and Chinese officials. The offices of Apple Daily were also raided. On August 22, 2022, Lai pleaded not guilty to the charges of “conspiracy to collude with foreign forces” and sedition. His trial began on December 18, 2023 and is ongoing.
Lai was again arrested on December 2, 2020, on spurious charges of fraud, when he reported to the police station as part of his bail condition set for the August 2020 arrest. The alleged fraud was said to arise out of a breach of a commercial lease. He was held without bail until December 23, 2020, and only released on conditions of house arrest, surrender of travel documents, banned from publishing any public media, and reporting to police three times a week. He was ordered back to detention on December 31, 2020. On December 10, 2022, he was sentenced to 5 years and 9 months of jail time on the fraud charges. This appears to be the first time a contractual dispute between a landlord and tenant has been prosecuted as a crime in Hong Kong. He was arrested on February 16, 2021, while in detention, for his alleged efforts to help activist Andy Li and eleven others flee to Taiwan in August 2020.
In December 2020, Reporters Without Borders awarded the Freedom of Press Award to Jimmy Lai for his founding of Apple Daily, which “still dares to openly criticize the Chinese regime and which widely covered last year’s pro-democracy protests.” In 2021, the Committee to Protect Journalists awarded their Gwen Ifill Press Freedom Award to Jimmy Lai, for extraordinary and sustained achievement in the cause of press freedom, noting that he has become a powerful symbol of the struggle to maintain press freedom in Hong Kong. In 2021 he was also awarded the Truman-Regan Medal of Freedom for “his lifelong commitment to freedom and democracy in Hong Kong, his dogged opposition to communism and all other forms of tyranny, as well as his determination to fight the CCP’s authoritarian actions no matter the cost.” On April 26, 2023, the CATO Institute awarded their 2023 Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty to Jimmy Lai, noting that “Jimmy…has become a powerful symbol of the struggle for democratic rights and press freedom in Hong Kong,” and “is an inspiration to millions in the struggle for liberty and justice around the world” for “sacrificing his own freedom to fight against the authoritarian government of China.”
Jimmy Lai has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize multiple times. In 2021, a group of 15 academics from 10 countries nominated five imprisoned Hong Kong pro-democracy activists who were charged under the national security law to the Nobel Peace Prize Committee. The group included Jimmy Lai. In 2024, Jimmy Lai is one of four nominees for the Nobel Peace Prize by the co-chairs of the Congressional Executive Commission on China, Rep. Smith and Sen. Merkley (the others are Ding Jiaxi, Xu Zhiyong, and Ilham Tohti).
Advocacy Partner: Freedom House
Advocate: Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD)
Updates:
- On July 4, 2024, PEN International highlighted the cases of prisoners of conscience in China, including Jimmy Lai, Rahile Dawut, and Ilham Tohti, during an oral statement delivered at China's fourth Universal Periodic Review at the UN Human Rights Council (July 9, 2024, PEN International).
- On July 12, 2024, Voice of America published an article detailing Jimmy Lai's addition to the Defending Freedoms Project with Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) as his advocate. The article included statements from Rep. Raskin and Freedom House (July 12, 2024, Voice of America).
In late July 2024, it was reported that Jimmy Lai’s appeal to have his case dismissed was denied by a Hong Kong court and that Lai would testify at his trial after it reconvenes on November 20 (July 25, 2024, Reuters; July 24, 2024, Associated Press). This four month delay in his trial and continued solitary confinement was condemned by his legal team and was highlighted by Forbes and the Wall Street Journal (July, 25, 2024, Doughty Street Chambers; July 30, 2024, Forbes; August 4, 2024, Wall Street Journal).
On August 12, 2024, the appeal by Jimmy Lai to overturn their conviction on charges of “illegal assembly” for protests in 2019 was denied by Hong Kong’s Court of Final Appeal (August 12, 2024, Reuters). The decision, and the role of UK Justice David Neuberger, was condemned by advocates and human rights organizations including the Committee to Protect Journalists, Article 19, and Former Hong Kong Governor Chris Patten (August 14, 2024, Committee to Protect Journalists; August 13, 2024, Article 19; August 12, 2024, The Guardian). Patten’s statement was subsequently condemned by the government of Hong Kong (August 15, 2024, Hong Kong Press Freedom).
As a result of the backlash to his role in the August 12, 2024 decision, Justice Neuberger resigned from his position as Chair of the High-Level Panel of Legal Experts on Media Freedom, but chose to remain on the Court of Final Appeal in Hong Kong (August 15, 2024, The Guardian).
On August 19, 2024, 45 human rights organizations published a letter calling for Justice Neuberger to resign from his position on the Court of Final Appeal as a result of his decision to uphold Jimmy Lai’s conviction (August 19, 2024, Committee to Protect Journalists).
On September 12, 2024, Jimmy Lai’s international legal team submitted an appeal to the UN Special Rapporteur on torture, which expressed concern over his treatment in prison due to his prolonged solitary confinement and lack of access to “independent medical care,” in addition to facing a possible life sentence for “entirely peaceful acts” (September 12, 2024, Doughty Street Chambers).
Jimmy Lai’s case was profiled in a September 2024 op-ed in the Wall Street Journal entitled “The Man Who Is Hong Kong” (September 16, 2024, Wall Street Journal).
On September 18, 2024, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hosted “Honoring Jimmy Lai: A Stand for Democracy and Free Speech in Hong Kong,” an event in which multiple members of the U.S. House and Senate expressed support for Jimmy Lai and called for his immediate release. Speakers from the House and Senate included TLHRC Co-Chairs Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA) and Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), SFRC Chair Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD), Ranking Member Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID), CECC Co-Chair Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Speaker Emerita Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), and Subcommittee on the Indo-Pacific Chair Rep. Young Kim (R-CA) (September 18, 2024, Senate Foreign Relations Committee; September 19, 2024, Hong Kong Free Press). The full recording of the event may be viewed here (September 18, 2024, YouTube - SenatorCardin).
On September 18, 2024, Jimmy Lai’s legal team delivered a statement at the 57th Session of the UN Human Rights Council expressing concern over his health and condemning his prolonged solitary confinement (September 18, 2024, Doughty Street Chambers).
Concerns about Jimmy Lai’s access to due process, as well as concern about reprisals and transnational repression faced by his Uk-based legal team were raised at the 57th session of the UN Human Rights Council by the U.S, UK, Canada, Australia, and the EU (September 27, 2024, Doughty Street Chambers; September 24, 2024, Delegation of the EU to the UN).
On September 27, 2024, Jimmy Lai’s Hong Kong-based legal team stated that “he has been receiving appropriate medical attention,” that he “has access to daylight,” and that he “exercises for an hour every day,” differing from the health concerns submitted to the UN by his international team on September 12 (September 27, 2024, South China Morning Post).
On October 2, 2024, Amnesty International officially designated three human rights defenders from Hong Kong and mainland China as prisoners of conscience, including Jimmy Lai and Ding Jiaxi (October 2, 2024, Amnesty International). The recognition was praised by the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong (October 2, 2024, CFHK Foundation).
In October 2024, it was reported that a “cross-party group of MPs” in the UK had begun working on increasing pressure to secure the release of arbitrarily detained UK citizens, including Jimmy Lai and Alaa Abd El Fattah. It was reported that the group planned to call for the establishment of a special envoy for hostage affairs in the UK government (October 8, 2024, Independent).
On October 16, 2024, Jimmy Lai was awarded the One Humanity Award, in absentia, by PEN Canada (October 17, 2024 CFHK Foundation; September 21, 2024 PEN Canada).
At the 100th session of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, it was determined that Jimmy Lai’s detention was unlawful and arbitrary and called for his immediate release (September 26, 2024, United Nations Digital Library; November 15, 2024, Doughty Street Chambers).
On November 20, 2024, Jimmy Lai’s trial resumed and he began his testimony (November 20, 2024, Reuters).
- On November 30, 2024, Jimmy Lai’s international legal team submitted a complaint to the UN Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers in response to accusations made by the Hong Kong government of unethical conduct (November 30, 2024, Doughty Street Chambers).
On December 3, 2024, Mark L. Clifford’s biography of Jimmy Lai, entitled The Troublemaker: How Jimmy Lai Became a Billionaire, Hong Kong's Greatest Dissident, and China's Most Feared Critic was released (December 3, 2024, Simon & Schuster). Reviews of the book from outlets such as the Wall Street Journal, the Diplomat, and the New York Times profiled Lai’s ongoing court case. On January 31, 2025, Clifford held a discussion on the book at the National Press Club’s Press Freedom Center (January 27, 2025, National Press Club).
The Economist profiled Jimmy Lai’s case in a January 2025 article titled “Jimmy Lai’s trial is a headline-worthy example of injustice” (January 9, 2025, Economist).
On January 22, 2025, MP Blair McDougall introduced the “Consular Assistance (Journalists) Bill,” nicknamed the “Jimmy Lai Bill,” in the UK parliament, which aimed to increasing protections for “British journalists abroad who have been detained or held hostage” (January 22, 2025, UK Parliament; January 23, 2025, CFHK Foundation).