Jimmy Lai’s family is calling on world leaders to help free the Catholic pro-democracy activist after he received a 20-year prison sentence from a Hong Kong high court. Source: EWTN News.
“The life expectancy of the average male in Hong Kong is 83. My father was handed a 20-year sentence. He is five years from 83. Just looking at this objectively, this has to be solved, sovereign to sovereign,” Claire Lai, Lai’s daughter, said during a press conference on Monday.
Lai, founder and publisher of the outspoken pro-democracy tabloid Apple Daily, was sentenced on Monday over what Chinese officials claim were national security violations.
The sentencing follows Lai’s December conviction, which ended what Lai’s defenders have described as a politically motivated show trial.
Following the announcement, national leaders, lawmakers, and Lai’s family have spoken out about the court’s decision.
“Every time when the Hong Kong Government could have done the right thing, they decided not to,” son Sebastien Lai said during the press conference.
“It took decades and decades to build up the Hong Kong legal system to what it was, the respect that it had internationally. Within five years, this government essentially managed to destroy it.”
Hearing the sentence was “horrible,” Sebastien said. “Even though you expect this sentence to come, you’re still devastated by it,” he said.
The decades-long sentence is “essentially tantamount to a life sentence” or “a death sentence, because in the conditions that my father is being kept in, I don’t know if he even has a tenth of that,” Sebastien said.
Lai “knows that he gave his all for his beliefs, for freedom, for democracy, for the people of Hong Kong, until there was no more to give,” Sebastien said.
“If you live always deterred by fear, you don’t really live at all,” Claire Lai said. “But my father, he always knew that, he always trusted in divine providence from the very first day of his arrest up until most recently. He knew that he was in God’s good hands, and he fully trusted that.”
Claire detailed the “huge amount of support” her family has received, including national support from the United Kingdom and in the United States “from both sides of the political aisle.”
FULL STORY
Jimmy Lai’s family responds to 20-year prison sentence (By Tessa Gervasini, EWTN News)
