British media tycoon Jimmy Lai’s teeth rotting and nails falling out in Hong Kong jail, his children say
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The family of jailed media tycoon Jimmy Lai have raised renewed concerns over their diabetic father’s deteriorating health condition and alleged mistreatment in solitary confinement at a Hong Kong jail.
Mr Lai’s children said the founder of the now-shuttered Apple Daily has lost “a significant amount of weight”, with his teeth rotting and nails falling out.
Mr Lai, who will turn 78 next Monday, is awaiting a verdict on charges of sedition and collusion with foreign powers under Hong Kong’s draconian national security law.
The ailing pro-democracy activist has pleaded not guilty, but faces the prospect of life in prison if convicted.
Concerns over Mr Lai’s health delayed the delivery of closing arguments in his trial in August, with the authorities eventually issuing him a heart monitor to be worn during the proceedings.
He has been kept in a solitary confinement cell, where summer temperatures rise to 44C, for nearly four years for his alleged role in the pro-democracy protests of 2019, which led to Beijing imposing the national security law in the city.
“He has lost a very significant amount of weight, visibly, and he is a lot weaker than he was before,” his daughter Claire Lai told AFP news agency.
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The ailing pro-democracy activist faces the prospect of life in prison (AFP/Getty)
She said her father’s nails turned “almost purple, grey and greenish before they fell off”, while his “teeth are getting rotten”.
Mr Lai, who his daughter describes as a devout Catholic, was denied the Christian church ceremony of communion, and the prison guards allegedly made small gestures to try to demoralise him.
After learning he enjoyed curry sauce, “instead of having extra curry sauce, he has no curry sauce at all”, she said.
“It’s little things like that that are extremely petty,” she said.
Mr Lai’s son, Sebastien, has repeatedly warned that his father suffers from diabetes and has lost weight due to being denied independent medical care.
Sebastien Lai previously said he believed it was in China’s interests to free Mr Lai, warning that he would become a martyr for the pro-democracy movement if he died behind bars. “It’s horrible for me to say this, but if my father dies in prison, he’s actually a stronger symbol of freedom, of martyrdom for your beliefs,” he said.
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Jimmy Lai arriving at a courthouse in Hong Kong in May 2020 (AFP/Getty)
He has appealed for the international community to increase pressure on China to release his father, whose high-profile trial is being viewed as a test of press freedom and judicial independence in the Asian financial hub.
He told AFP that he hoped both US president, Donald Trump, and the UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, would keep raising his father’s release with China.
President Trump had promised to raise the matter of his father’s incarceration during a meeting with Chinese president Xi Jinping in South Korea in October.
“It will take two hours to put my father on a plane and send him away,” Sebastien Lai said. “It’ll be the humane thing to do; it’ll be the right thing to do. They’ve already put him through this hell.”
