Keir Starmer should demand the release of these two figures before it’s too late
By Benedict Rogers in The Telegraph
In the sweltering Asian monsoon heat, two elderly and increasingly frail democracy activists languish in jail; their families are increasingly concerned that they could die behind bars.
Jailed within a few months of each other, both had previously led lives of material comfort and intellectual freedom. They have sacrificed this in pursuit of political freedom for their people.
Both could – at various points in their lives – have fled abroad, but chose to stay even though that meant risking many years in prison for their beliefs. And both have strong connections with Britain – which, with the rest of the international community, has a moral responsibility to secure their release.
One is Hong Kong’s pro-democracy campaigner and media entrepreneur Jimmy Lai,
who turns 78 in December. The other is Myanmar’s democratically-elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who turned 80 in June.
Politician and activist Aung San Suu Kyi
Last week, Mr Lai’s son Sebastien and his international legal team filed an urgent appeal to the United Nations, citing a serious and immediate risk to Mr Lai’s health. They highlighted new evidence of an alleged systematic failure by the Hong Kong authorities to provide proper medical care to older and diabetic prisoners.
And they addressed increasing concerns about Mr Lai’s deteriorating health. Mr Lai, a diabetic with a heart condition, has been kept in prolonged solitary confinement for over four and a half years. He has been fitted with a cardiac monitor but has not received adequate independent medical treatment for his life-threatening conditions.
On exactly the same day, Kim Aris, Ms Suu Kyi’s son, expressed urgent concerns about his mother’s health. He stated she has a deteriorating heart condition and called for urgent medical attention. She has been in jail since the illegitimate military coup on February 1 2021 which overthrew her democratically elected civilian-led government.
Both individuals now face the prospect of spending many years in jail. Mr Lai, who has already served multiple sentences on a variety of trumped-up charges, has just completed his trial under Hong Kong’s draconian National Security Law, which carries a minimum ten-year sentence and could lead to life imprisonment. He is awaiting the verdict and sentence.
Ms Suu Kyi, also convicted on a series of fabricated charges, is currently serving a 27-year sentence. Given their ages and frail health conditions, both face the prospect of dying soon in jail unless they are freed immediately.
Conditions in jails in both Hong Kong and Myanmar are dire for everyone, but particularly deadly for elderly persons. A new report released this week documents cases of physical and psychological abuse in Hong Kong’s prisons, including sexual and physical violence, medical neglect, unsanitary conditions, and restrictions on literature and religious practice.
Hong Kong’s political prisoners – of whom there have been over 1,900 sentenced in the past five years and at least 800 remain imprisoned – face intensifying Chinese Communist Party propaganda, surveillance and abuse, as well as rat-infested cells, overflowing toilets and beatings with impunity.
In Myanmar, it is even worse. Over 29,000 people have been jailed since the coup, and more than 22,000 remain in prison – in conditions even worse than Hong Kong’s, with torture widespread and systematic, living conditions dire, and medical care almost non-existent.
Deaths in prison, from torture and neglect, have become almost routine. There is a humanitarian crisis in Myanmar’s jails which is a microcosm of the country’s overall humanitarian disaster.
So what has this to do with us? First, the hundreds of political prisoners in Hong Kong and thousands in Myanmar ought to prick our moral consciences as human beings. Second, both are former British colonies to which we ought to feel some twinge of responsibility.
And thirdly, Mr Lai is a British citizen, and Ms Suu Kyi was a British resident for many years and married to the late Oxford academic Dr Michael Aris. Her sons and in-laws are British.
On a personal level, I know Mr Lai and his family well. And I have had the privilege of meeting Ms Suu Kyi several times and knowing her family.
Neither Mr Lai nor Ms Suu Kyi are perfect. They have their critics. In his past, Mr Lai ran salacious stories in his Apple Daily newspaper, hardly exceptional in today’s sensationalist and cut-throat media environment.
More seriously and shockingly, though, Ms Suu Kyi, compromised with the military and denied that genocide occurred against the Rohingya, even going to the International Court of Justice to defend the military. But the point about democracy and freedom is that we can disagree, debate, scrutinise and hold people to account.
Mr Lai and Ms Suu Kyi have been convicted not for any crimes committed, but rather on false charges for opinions expressed and for their commitment to democracy.
They have been jailed for the crimes, as Mr Lai’s international lawyer Caoilfhionn Gallagher KC so brilliantly puts it, of conspiracy to commit journalism – or, in the case of Ms Suu Kyi, conspiracy to commit democracy.
There is much with which I would find myself in agreement with Mr Lai about. There are quite a few things – not least the genocide of the Rohingya, the plight of Myanmar’s other ethnic nationalities and the state of civil society in Myanmar – about which I would find myself in disagreement with Ms Suu Kyi, who has severely damaged her reputation as a human rights leader by her actions while in power.
But on the injustice of her imprisonment, I am at one with her, her family, and her friends. We should not only care or campaign for Mr Lai or Ms Suu Kyi.
We should also fight to free all political prisoners and end human rights violations. But these two individuals are emblematic of the others, and help shine a light on their people’s struggle.
Keir Starmer must take up these issues. He should accept Sebastien Lai’s request to meet. And he should respond to Kim Aris’ appeal to demand his mother’s release.
He should also study the reports about torture and abuse in the prisons of Myanmar and Hong Kong and demand an international, independent inquiry. And he should demand, unequivocally and repeatedly, the release of Jimmy Lai and Aung San Suu Kyi. Before it is too late and they die from abuse and neglect in prison.
This article was originally published in The Telegraph.