Justice has not been served today to Hong Kong activists, including Jimmy Lai

What does it say about Hong Kong that the Correctional

Services Department takes part in the Hong Kong Flower Show?!
 

This morning saw Hong Kong's appeals court clear seven prominent democracy figures of the charge of organising a pro-democracy protest rally on August 18th, 2019, which attracted some 1.7 million peaceful participants despite rain pouring down for much of the afternoon.  But should anyone want to hail it as a victory for democracy and freedom of assembly in Hong Kong, they should note that "[w]hile the appeals court struck down one conviction, it upheld another, for participating in the August 18 demonstration".  

 

Consequently, their convictions and sentences linked to participating in that protest were upheld even if the sentences they received on April 16th, 2021, were reduced.  More specifically, Jimmy "Lai saw his sentence reduced from 12 months to nine, Lee Cheuk-yan’s was reduced from 12 months to six, Leung’s went from 18 months to 12 months, and Cyd Ho had her eight-month sentence, which she had already completed, reduced to five months" while Margaret "Ng, Martin Lee and Albert Ho, who were originally handed suspended sentences, [had] only sought to challenge their conviction" -- because it doesn't look good (on paper, at the very least) for practicing lawyers like them to have convictions on their record -- but were thus unsuccessful in doing so.

 

It's probably a reflection of Jimmy Lai being the most well known of the septet that The Guardian's piece on this court finding features a photo of the 75-year-old billionaire who currently is behind bars.  Or possibly it's because he's the one British citizen among the seven Hong Kong pro-democracy figures whose appeal was heard today.

 

In any case, I'd like to draw attention to that photo of him that was used.  Specifically, it's  one of the "exclusive photos taken by The Associated Press in recent weeks" that were shared in a piece that came to my attention late last night, and which I know that I'm far from the only person who found heartbreaking.  

 

"Jimmy Lai, a former newspaper publisher and one of Hong Kong’s most prominent pro-democracy activists, spends around 23 hours a day in solitary confinement in a maximum-security facility while he awaits a trial that could send him to prison for life."  Thus began that report by Louise Delmotte that also provided the following details of the media mogul turned political prisoner's prison regime: 

Lai is allowed out for 50 minutes a day to exercise. Unlike most other inmates, who play football or exercise in groups, Lai walks alone in what appears to be a 5-by-10-meter (16-by-30-foot) enclosure surrounded by barbed wire under Hong Kong’s punishing summer sun before returning to his unairconditioned cell in the prison...

 

Lai is allowed two 30-minute visits by relatives or friends each month. They are separated by glass and communicate by phone...

 

Lai, who suffers from diabetes and was diagnosed with high blood pressure in 2021 while in detention, is treated as a Category A prisoner, a status for inmates who have committed the most serious crimes such as murder.

Among the reactions to this AP report I've since read is one that said something to the effect of "He's going to die in prison".  You also have those people, including lawyers like Samuel Bickett, pointing out that the treatment that Jimmy Lai has been subjected to is torture.  

In addition, there's this from Kevin Yam over on Twitter: "The shame and disgrace are on those who are persecuting Jimmy Lai. The man himself walks tall and is rightly respected and admired by all freedom-loving peoples of the world. Hong Kong is lucky to have Jimmy Lai."