Sebastian Lai denounces 20-year term for Jimmy Lai (Full Transcript)

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: 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. Mr Lai, a British citizen, is 78. His family says the sentence is cruel and draconian. 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 sentence, which is the harshest so far handed down.

[00:00:35] Speaker 2: 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 solitary confinement in the maximum security prison, his health has massively deteriorated. But the outcome to this life sentence, essentially, he's 78, so even if he got three more years, that could very well be a death sentence. This life sentence is something that he always knew that was a possibility. Even five years ago, even 30 years ago when he decided to start campaigning for freedom and democracy in Hong Kong. So heartbreaking, but unfortunately we all expected it.

[00:01:15] Speaker 1: China has said that the sentencing is legitimate. They believe that your father was putting the city's stability at stake. How would you characterise the trial he received?

[00:01:29] Speaker 2: It's a textbook show trial. 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. So it's a textbook show trial. I mean, look, this charge of collusion with foreign forces, collusion necessitates some nefarious benefit. And all that I have found is that the nefarious benefit for my father would have been democracy in Hong Kong. That was promised in the joint declaration. Democracy and one vote. One vote for every single person. That's not nefarious.

[00:02:06] Speaker 1: 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?

[00:02:17] Speaker 2: 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 the 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. And what have they done? I mean, they've kept this man who's heir to many in the world for five years in prison. They've destroyed their legal system. And what benefit?

[00:02:52] Speaker 1: As we've said, he is a British citizen. What more would you like the UK government to do? I have heard it described by your father's supporters that it was a wasted opportunity when Sir Keir Starmer went to China.

[00:03:10] Speaker 2: Unfortunately time is running out for my father. The clock is ticking. At his age, given the conditions he's in, he's got heart issues. He's lost 10 kilos over the last year alone. Time is not on his side. And in a time when we're talking about closer relationships to China, a normalisation of relationships, 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, then that tells you all you need to know about the relationship that we have with China.

[00:03:51] Speaker 1: What regrets does he have, given what's happened to him?

[00:03:59] Speaker 2: I think when you hear stories like my father's about the courage that he's faced in these situations, people think a man that have no fear. But I guarantee you, I know my father, he fears. He fears the same way as all of us. He fears to never see his family again. He fears to die in prison alone. 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 colleagues, 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'm proud of him and I hope that our country is also proud of him.

[00:04:36] Speaker 1: What do you believe his sentence means for Hong Kong?

[00:04:41] Speaker 2: 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 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 evidence that incriminates 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.

[00:05:30] Speaker 1: What hopes do you have that the authorities will cut short his sentence and release him?

[00:05:38] Speaker 2: I think it's in their best interest to do so. Now, whether they do that, I do not know. But that's why it's so important to push for it. And I think, in the end, a man who has given up so much, so many years, so much time for freedom and democracy, deserves a bit of freedom himself. So I hope they do the right thing.

[00:06:02] Speaker 1: Sebastian Lyon, thank you very much for talking to us here on BBC News.

[00:06:06] Speaker 2: Thank you for having me.