Jimmy Lai: Lawyer slams Authorities for ‘radio silence’ on China-sponsored arrest of 75-year-old

A prime lawyer has slammed the UK Authorities‘s ‘radio silence’ over the China-sponsored arrest of a British citizen, 75, who’s trapped in solitary confinement and is now prone to ‘die in jail’.

Caoilfhionn Gallagher KC hit out on the Authorities’s ‘weak’ response to the imprisonment of British media tycoon Jimmy Lai, 75, who was jailed in December 2020 on ‘arbitrary’ fees and now faces life in jail.

It comes after 40 of 100 US senators co-sponsored a decision this month urging a powerful US response to any Chinese language efforts to clamp down on dissent in Hong Kong and condemned ‘false and politically-motivated fees’ in opposition to Mr Lai.

Talking on the All Get together Parliamentary Group on Hong Kong Inquiry on Wednesday, Mrs Gallagher claimed Mr Lai’s conviction for fraud in December 2022 went ‘utterly unnoticed’ by the Authorities and equated its response to ‘radio silence’.

Founding father of Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy paper Apple Each day, Mr Lai was vital of the Chinese language Communist Get together and has been detained at a maximum-security jail the place he has been in solitary confinement since 2021.

Caoilfhionn Gallagher KC hit out on the Authorities’s ‘weak’ response to China’s imprisonment of British media tycoon Jimmy Lai (pictured), 75, who was arrested in December 2020 on ‘arbitrary’ fees and now faces life in jail

Talking on the All Get together Parliamentary Group on Hong Kong Inquiry on Wednesday, Mrs Gallagher (pictured) claimed Mr Lai’s conviction for fraud in December 2022 went ‘utterly unnoticed’ by the Authorities and and equated its response to ‘radio silence’. Pictured: Mrs Gallagher in 2016

Mrs Gallagher mentioned: ‘Regrettably the UK’s response to Mr Lai’s imprisonment has been weak up to now.

‘We had Dominic Raab in December 2020 who made a powerful assertion. However we then had a interval of two years when the UK Authorities was extraordinarily quiet.

‘The tip outcome has been, for this two-year interval, there has primarily been radio silence a couple of UK nationwide being detained.

‘We repeatedly tried to fulfill with the International Secretary final 12 months after Mr Lai was convicted in December 2022 and we had been unable to take action.

‘It’s stunning to me that his conviction went utterly unnoticed by the UK Authorities.

‘America put out a really sturdy assertion and the European Union spoke very strongly, whereas the UK stayed silent.’

Mr Lai was ‘perp-walked’ from his workplace in August 2020 and was charged with 4 offences beneath China’s draconian Nationwide Safety Regulation – one among which included lighting a candle in commemoration of the Tiananmen Sq. Bloodbath of 1989.

He was then sentenced to twenty months in jail and was given an extra 5 years and 9 months final December on two separate fees linked to lease violations which have been described as ‘politically motivated’.

Mr Lai is now going through a life sentence on a cost of ‘colluding with overseas powers’ for publishing a newspaper extremely vital of the Chinese language Communist Get together.

Mrs Gallagher mentioned it was ‘stunning’ that Mr Lai’s conviction went ‘utterly unnoticed’ by the UK Authorities. Pictured: Mr Lai, 75, being arrested in Hong Kong in 2020

However Mrs Gallagher added she welcomed the ‘child steps’ seen in the previous couple of weeks when International Secretary James Cleverly addressed the United Nations in Geneva in February and referred ‘expressly to his case’.

However she added it was ‘too little too late’ and urged the Authorities to do ‘far more’ and be ‘way more sturdy’ in defence of its citizen.

The Nationwide Safety regulation was handed by China’s rubber-stamp parliament and bypassed Hong Kong’s legislature in June 2020.

It was broadly seen as a response to Hong Kong’s tumultuous pro-democracy motion which noticed thousands and thousands protesting in opposition to a Invoice which might have given the city-state’s judicial system energy to extradite suspected criminals to face trial in mainland China.

The NSL criminalised ‘secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with overseas forces’ and was criticised as being ‘obscure’ with the aim of crushing any dissent in opposition to the Chinese language Communist Get together.

Hong Kong plummeted from eightieth to 148th out of 180 international locations and territories evaluated on press freedom because the regulation was launched, based on NGO Reporters With out Borders.

Mrs Gallagher added: ‘Over time, Apple Each day has trod on some very highly effective toes. Due to this, for many years Jimmy Lai was focused by the authorities in some ways.

‘What we see here’s a man behind bars who will die behind bars, except extra is finished for his case.’