British citizen, 78, faces 20-year prison sentence after more than five years arbitrary detention for exercising basic freedoms
(BANGKOK, February 10, 2026) — The decision yesterday by a Hong Kong court to sentence media entrepreneur and pro-democracy campaigner Jimmy Lai, aged 78, to 20 years in prison is a grave miscarriage of justice which should be condemned widely by the international community, Fortify Rights said today.
“The 20-year sentence imposed on Jimmy Lai is in effect a life sentence and ultimately a death sentence,” said Benedict Rogers, Senior Director at Fortify Rights. “Mr. Lai has already spent over five years in solitary confinement in prison. Given his age and deteriorating health, he will die in jail unless the international community take urgent action to demand his immediate release.”
Mr. Lai, a British citizen and the founder of the pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily which was forcibly shut down in 2021, was convicted on December 15, 2025, on two charges—conspiracy to collude with foreign powers, under Hong Kong’s draconian national security law, and conspiracy to publish seditious publications. He has already spent more than five years in jail on multiple other charges. He has been held in solitary confinement for over 1,867 days.
On February 9, 2026, U.N. Human Rights Chief Volker Türk said in a statement, “This outcome highlights how the vague and overly broad provisions of Hong Kong’s national security legislation can lead to being interpreted and enforced in violation of Hong Kong’s international human rights obligations.”
The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention declared Mr. Lai’s imprisonment arbitrary and unlawful in 2024 and called for his immediate release, and five U.N. Special Rapporteurs have also called for his release.
On January 31, 2024 the U.N. announced that the Special Rapporteur on torture had written to the authorities in China to address claims that the evidence of a key prosecution witness in Mr. Lai’s trial had been obtained through torture, and calling for an immediate investigation into the allegations.
Hong Kong is a party to the U.N. Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. The conditions in which Mr. Lai has been held, in solitary confinement in a small prison cell, without natural light and in extreme heat, may constitute a violation of Hong Kong’s obligations under this Convention. Mr. Lai has been permitted less than one hour per day of exercise in a confined space, and denied independent medical care of his choosing.
There are increasing concerns about Mr. Lai’s deteriorating health. He suffers from diabetes and a heart condition, and has been held in solitary. In September 2025, his son Sebastien Lai, together with his international legal team led by Caoilfhionn Gallagher KC, submitted a new urgent appeal to the U.N. experts, including the Special Rapporteur on torture, the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, and the Special Rapporteur on the right to health, warning of the serious and immediate risk to Mr. Lai’s life posed by his ongoing detention. The urgent appeal includes new evidence and legal analysis demonstrating an apparent systemic failure of the Hong Kong authorities to adequately treat older and diabetic prisoners. In December 2025, Mr. Lai’s daughter Claire Lai raised further concerns, citing Mr. Lai’s dramatic weight loss and worsening health.
Fortify Rights urges all U.N. member states to use every available diplomatic, legal, and political tool to condemn the prison sentence and press the Chinese and Hong Kong authorities to immediately and unconditionally release Mr. Lai.
“This cruel sentence was imposed following a politically-motivated sham trial in which Mr. Lai was denied his first choice of legal counsel and the judgment was pre-determined,” said Benedict Rogers. “The international community, and especially Britain, must condemn this sentencing unequivocally. Britain, the United States, and other governments must use every available tool to demand Mr. Lai’s immediate and unconditional release on humanitarian grounds. Now that the regime in Beijing has made an example of Mr. Lai, it should allow him to leave Hong Kong to spend the final years of his life in freedom with his family. The alternative is that he will die in jail as a martyr for freedom.”