Name: Hong Kong court jails media tycoon and British citizen Jimmy Lai | BBC News
Uploaded: 2026-02-09T17:15:17.000Z
Duration: 6 min 8 s
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The Hong Kong media tycoon and pro democracy campaigner Jimmy Lai has been sentenced to 20 years in prison on charges of foreign collusion and sedition.

It's the harshest punishment yet handed out under the territory's strict national security law.

His family says the sentence is cruel and draconian.

Well, we can speak now to Jimmy's son, Sebastian Lai.

Mr. Lai, thank you very much for joining us.

Please give us your reaction, first of all, to this, this sentence, which is the harshest so far handed down.

It's obviously heartbreaking, but unfortunately, it's not unexpected.

Look, I think what was unexpected was that it took five years to get to this point.

The last five years my father has spent in solid confinement in the maximum security prison.

But the outcome to this, this life sentence, essentially he's 78.

So even if he got three more years, that.

That could very well be a death sentence.

This life sentence is something that he always knew that was a possibility, you know, even five years ago.

Five years ago, even 30 years ago, when he decided to start campaigning for freedom and democracy in Hong Kong.

China has said that the sentencing is legitimate.

They believe that your father was putting the city's stability at stake.

How would you characterize the trial he received?

There's allegations of witnesses being tortured.

Multiple states NGOs have called for my father's release.

The United nations have called for my father's release.

I mean, look, this charge of collusion with foreign forces, Collusion, necessities necessary.

And all that I found is that the nefarious benefit for my father would have been democracy in Hong Kong.

That was promised in the joint declaration.

Tell us what your concerns are for him and his other former colleagues who've been put in prison as well.

How much contact are you likely to have with him?

Unfortunately, because I advocate on his behalf, I can't go back to Hong Kong.

And, yeah, it's obviously tremendously heartbreaking because many of my father's colleagues and other people who were arrested were to put up this show trial.

So there's this immensely cruel thing that they're doing, ruining all these people's lives in order to essentially get to my father.

I mean, they've kept this man who's a hero to many in the world.

For five years in prison, they've destroyed their legal system.

What more would you like the UK government to do?

Because I have heard it described by your father's supporters that it was a wasted opportunity when Sir Keir Starmer went to China.

You know, unfortunately, time is running out for my father.

At his age, given the conditions he's in, he's got heart issues.

He's lost 10 kilos over the last year alone.

And in a time when we're talking about closer relationships to China, a normalization of relationships, you know, despite all the national security concerns that we have, rightly so, in this country.

If they can't even put a 78 year old man who's guilty of nothing more than giving all that he has to stand up for freedom and liberty for the people of Hong Kong on a plane and sending him back here now, especially given his deteriorating health, and

that tells you all you need to know about the relationship that we have with China.

What regrets does he have given what's happened to him?

I think, look, I think when you hear stories like my father's about courage that he's faced in these situations, people think of men that have no fear.

But I guarantee you, I know my father, he fears.

But what he doesn't fear, what he knows that he has done, is that he's given everything that he has to stand up for his beliefs, to stand up for his colleague, to stand up for the people of Hong Kong.

In the end, this is a man who at every turn did the right thing.

And I hope that our country is also proud of him.

What do you believe his sentence means for Hong Kong?

I think it's obviously devastating, but it's also a tremendous faux pas.

It's not the smart move because you've essentially destroyed your legal system.

You've essentially decided to weaponize a legal system to, to go after a man who's a hero to many around the world, to destroy his newspaper, to arrest a few of his colleagues.

And there's no benefit to it because after five years, after a tremendously long trial, they have found nothing.

They have found a man who has given everything that he has for freedom.

There's no, you know, there's no evidence that incriminate him.

So Hong Kong now has spent this tremendous amount of money, destroyed what was its competitive advantage, a very strong legal system, to go after my father and have nothing to show for it.

What hopes do you have that the authorities will cut short his sentence and release him?

I do not know, but that's why it's so important to push for it.

A man who has given up so much, so many years, so much time for freedom and democracy, deserves a bit of freedom himself.

Sebastian Lai, thank you very much for talking to us here on BBC News.