Jimmy Lai’s son asks Special Rapporteur to speak for Hong Kong’s peaceful protesters
PICTURE: Jimmy Lai has been imprisoned in Hong Kong, in solitary confinement, for more than four years/Doughty Street Chambers
Today, media publisher Jimmy Lai’s son, Sebastien Lai, addressed the 59th Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) as a representative of PEN International during an Interactive Dialogue with Irene Khan, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Opinion and Expression.
In his submitted statement, Sebastien highlighted Hong Kong’s rapidly deteriorating freedom of expression environment and called on the Hong Kong authorities to release his imprisoned father, a writer and media publisher who has been charged under Hong Kong’s deeply repressive National Security Law (NSL), which can result in a life sentence if convicted.
PEN International joins Sebastien in calling on the Hong Kong authorities to immediately and unconditionally release Jimmy Lai and to drop all charges against him. The organisation also calls on the Hong Kong and Chinese government to uphold their international human rights obligations, ensuring the right to freedom of expression for all.
PEN International and PEN Centres worldwide have continuously campaigned for Jimmy Lai’s release since his initial detention, including several high-level interventions at the United Nations Human Rights Council. On 21 September 2024, Jimmy Lai was named as recipient of PEN Canada’s One Humanity Award.
Sebastien Lai’s statement:
PEN International thanks the Special Rapporteur for her latest report on freedom of expression in the context of elections. Free speech is the lifeblood of democracy.
A free and independent press is an essential element of that right, and the journalists, writers and publishers who do their work without fear nor favour are the core of an independent press
In recent years there has been an escalation in the detention, harassment, and persecution of journalists and writers for their reporting on local, national or international events, including on elections.
Hong Kong SAR, once my home and a bastion of rights and freedoms in the Asia Pacific, is now emblematic of this trend.
Independent newspapers, like Apple Daily, that fearlessly sought out and reported on the truth, exposed corruption and abuse of power, have been shut down. Journalists have been prosecuted for sedition, for writing and publishing articles expressing opinions critical of the Chinese Communist Party.
My father is one of the people being prosecuted.
My name is Sebastien Lai, and my father, Jimmy Lai founded Apple Daily. He is a publisher, writer and journalist, who has been imprisoned in Hong Kong, in solitary confinement, for 4.5 years.
His latest trial under the draconian National Security Law makes clear that he is on trial because of his peaceful expression of opinion and for supporting democratic values. Now 77, he faces the rest of his life in prison for providing an essential service to the people of Hong Kong and for standing up for democracy.
The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has found he is arbitrarily detained, that he has been targeted for exercising his right to freedom of expression, that the trials against him have been unfair.
But it’s not just my father. Many others who have sought to peacefully express their opinion, by peaceful demonstration, on social media, in the media, have been arrested, prosecuted, imprisoned in Hong Kong
International PEN calls on Hong Kong to respect and protect those who peacefully protest and advocate for democracy and human rights, and to release my father, Jimmy Lai.
We urge the Special Rapporteur and the Council to raise Jimmy Lai’s case and these vital issues with the Hong Kong and Chinese authorities.
- This article was published here
