Taipei, Taiwan – The nationwide safety trial of Jimmy Lai, the jailed 75-year-old media mogul and founding father of the now defunct Apple Each day newspaper, was supposed to begin subsequent month.
Nevertheless it has now been delayed – once more – till December 18.
Lai has been in custody since December 2020 and faces a number of fees associated to Hong Kong’s democracy motion and protests.
Lai has already been sentenced to greater than 5 and half years over a business lease at Apple Each day, and faces further fees underneath the nationwide safety regulation (NSL) and sedition regulation, which dates from colonial instances.
Lai was additionally denied his alternative of lawyer – veteran British barrister Timothy Owen – for the NSL trial, which can be heard earlier than a panel of three judges permitted by Beijing.
Sebastien Lai, the tycoon’s 28-year-old son spoke to Al Jazeera in Taipei about his father’s scenario and his hopes for the long run.
Al Jazeera: What are your expectations for the upcoming trial?
Sebastien Lai: I’m optimistic, in a way. Clearly, it is a present trial. There’s truly no foundation for nationwide safety convictions. There’s no foundation for something that they’ll convict on so far, and he’s been in jail for 3 years. However my expectation is that it’s a chance to see if Hong Kong and the Hong Kong authorities are individuals of their phrase, as a result of on the finish of the day, what was occurring may be very apparent to the free world.
They’re principally punishing a writer, a 75-year-old man, for standing up for the freedoms that the Hong Kong state has and that have been additionally promised throughout the handover. That’s all it’s actually they usually’re utilizing a nationwide safety regulation, and the nationwide safety regulation isn’t retroactive. That’s one thing that they’ve acknowledged very clearly – as soon as it was in place, from that time is what counts. So if we have a look at it even simply on that very degree, on their phrase, then none of those guys ought to be in jail.
I believe there’s a purpose why they preserve delaying the trial. There’s a perception that for those who’re delaying it, it signifies that you don’t have a really robust case. And in addition, extra importantly, they’re actually attempting to get it underneath all people’s radar – that’s why they’re doing it throughout Christmas. That’s my conclusion on my half, however it is sensible.
Al Jazeera: How do you’re feeling concerning the authorities’s resolution to dam your father’s alternative of a British lawyer for his nationwide safety trial?
Lai: I’ve no contact with the Hong Kong authorized staff. My contact is with the worldwide authorized staff, they usually’re impartial of each other. And with the lawyer they supply… it goes to indicate the place the Hong Kong authorized system is now. However extra importantly, I believe it’s only a symptom of a a lot larger illness, of a a lot larger decay of the entire authorized system.
You may see that in dad getting 12 months for lighting a candle at a Tiananmen Sq. vigil, how not too long ago he was acquitted for organising a protest that 1.7 million confirmed up at, however he had already carried out the sentence.
Both method, I believe the larger level is he served greater than 10 months greater than a 12 months (referring to the time his father had already spent in jail) for taking part in a protest with 1.7 million individuals, and on one other degree 1.7 million went out and protested [against] the federal government. I believe what’s occurring with the overseas lawyer is unlucky however it’s extra of a way of the place the Hong Kong authorized system goes.
Al Jazeera: What can different international locations like the UK do?
Lai: The UK has a accountability to its residents. My father is a citizen… they’ve a accountability to their residents, particularly when they’re being unjustly handled overseas. And there’s additionally a component of Hong Kong has primarily damaged its promise to the UK about 50 years of handover, so there’s additionally that. The UK has to carry Hong Kong accountable, or at the least name Hong Kong out that they’re prepared to interrupt the pacts they’ve with different nations on a whim.
Hong Kong is attempting to inform the world that they’re open for enterprise they usually need to be a part of the world once more, and it’s necessary to grasp that Hong Kong’s essential profit is it’s a spot the place it’s very near China however it had the rule of regulation and a really free authorities system. It was a mannequin of freedom and Hong Kong continues to be attempting to inform the world that they’ve that, however they’ll’t try this if they’ve somebody like my dad in jail. They will’t say they’ve free press and ship 500 individuals to raid a newspaper. You need to select one or the opposite. I don’t suppose you’ll be able to deal with the world like they’re silly.
Hong Kong can both present the world that ‘we nonetheless need to be part of the world financial system’, ‘we nonetheless need to be open for enterprise’ or they’ll preserve doing this folly, which is principally merciless. My father, and the opposite political prisoners, they’ve already slandered their names and put them in jail. Dad’s been in jail for 3 years and at 75 that’s a very long time. And so I believe at this level it’s simply merciless.
I hope that the UK places my dad’s case ahead each time they negotiate with Hong Kong, they’re vocal about this and inform China and Hong Kong that that is unacceptable behaviour and that it’s not acceptable for China and Hong Kong to step on the freedoms that the UK has, or the free world has.
Al Jazeera: How’s your father doing in jail?
Lai: Sadly I haven’t seen him in additional than three years since I left in 2020. I not too long ago noticed pictures of him. I believe he’s a robust man and I do know that he’s mentally powerful, I do know that clearly realizing you’re doing the appropriate factor is a superb supply of energy, his faith is a superb supply of energy, however at his age he’s the oldest political prisoner in Hong Kong except they attempt to arrest another person.
Al Jazeera: Are you shut with him? Individuals have difficult relationships with their fathers typically.
Lai: I used to be very lucky, I used to be extremely fortunate as a result of by the point that I used to be born, dad was already a bit older. So I’m 28, he’s 75. He was 47 after I was born, so clearly he was nonetheless very busy however we received to spend so much of time collectively rising up. I believe on the finish of the day, he’s clearly somebody I look as much as significantly due to his actions [and] due to his willingness to face by his phrase.
I noticed movies from the BBC that they confirmed me from the archives and it was him earlier than the handover. These English guys have been interviewing him, and the loopy factor is that is like 30 years in the past and after they ask him, ‘What are they going to do? Are they going to come back after you?’ And he tears up and says, ‘Hong Kong is my dwelling, it’s given me all the pieces, so I’ll shield it’. And that was 30 years in the past. It’s mind-blowing.
Al Jazeera: How would you describe the Hong Kong of at present in contrast with the one the place you grew up?
Lai: I believe for lots of people Hong Kong was at all times a really hopeful place. It had its points however it was at all times a really hopeful place – a spot the place due to the establishments that have been in place … the place if somebody was prepared to work actually exhausting they may have a profitable final result. However I believe extra importantly, it was one of many uncommon locations on this planet – a society of Chinese language those that had freedoms in addition to common suffrage. It was an experiment in that sense. It was at all times individuals leaving mainland China to come back to Hong Kong and never Hong Kong to mainland China. So for me that was at all times a supply of delight, the freedoms that we had, the hope that we had it’s what made Hong Kong so dynamic.
My impression of Hong Kong Kong now – and I haven’t been for 3 years – is that by and enormous that freedom is gone. It’s a spot the place the federal government has blurred the traces of the regulation a lot that most individuals would slightly keep away from it. I believe that component of not being afraid of what you say or afraid of what you do, I believe that’s central to why Hong Kong was profitable.
Al Jazeera: The place do you see Hong Kong in 5 years?
Lai: I believe it relies on if the individuals operating Hong Kong realise it’s true that these freedoms are one strategy to [stand out] as a result of in the long run, the federal government must be accountable for what they are saying, they are going to be judged on their actions. I hope and I don’t know if that would be the case that Hong Kong will realise the price of giving up these freedoms is just too excessive and reinstate them. If that’s the case there’s a risk of it being a world metropolis once more. I believe the place it’s going although it’s most likely going to be one other mainland metropolis, and it’s going to lose its aggressive benefit, it’s not going to have the ability to compete with different cities in mainland China.
