Hong Kong government hits out at UK lawyers for Jimmy Lai over UN appeal

Lawyers have defamed judicial system with false claims about Lai’s treatment in prison, government says

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Jimmy Lai has been remanded in custody since December 2020. Photo: Reuters

Published: 11:42pm, 13 Sep 2024Updated: 12:35am, 14 Sep 2024

Hong Kong authorities have accused the international legal representatives of former media tycoon Jimmy Lai Chee-ying and his son of defaming the city’s judicial system by appealing to the United Nations over the activist’s “prolonged detention in solitary confinement”.

The government on Friday evening expressed its “strong dissatisfaction and opposition” over the appeal filed a day before to UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Alice Edwards by a team of five UK-based lawyers representing Lai and his son Sebastien Lai.

The appeal concerned Jimmy Lai’s solitary confinement at Stanley Prison and the Lai Chi Kok Reception Centre over the past 3½ years, claiming the 76-year-old was locked up for more than 23 hours a day with minimal exposure to the sun and given as little as 50 minutes to exercise.

The team also said Lai, diagnosed with diabetes, had been denied access to specialised medical care and had suffered significant weight loss and increasing frailty.

But the government denied these allegations, saying the legal team’s move had “undermined the rule of law”.

Sebastien Lai, the son of Jimmy Lai. Photo: AFP

“The government strongly opposes the foreign force unreasonably smearing the treatment Jimmy Lai has received in the correctional institutions,” a spokesman said.