Hong Kong media tycoon and Apple Daily founder Jimmy Lai will not appeal his national security conviction or the accompanying 20-year prison sentence, according to one of his lawyers and a Hong Kong Free Press (HKFP) report on Friday. Lai was sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment last month for two counts of conspiring to collude with foreign forces and one count of conspiring to publish seditious publications.
“We can confirm we have clear and definitive instructions not to lodge an appeal against the conviction or sentence,” one of Lai’s lawyers told the Hong Kong Free Press (HKFP). The lawyer declined to elaborate on the reason.
Following the sentencing, the lead counsel of Lai’s international legal team, Caoilfhionn Gallagher, described the five-year judicial process as a “sham process.”
“If China fails to release him immediately and unconditionally, the international community must hold China to account,” Gallagher asserted.
In addition, Lai’s son Sebastian publicly questioned the value of pursuing an appeal and urged the international community to seek a political solution for his father’s release. “It is time to put action behind words. Make my father’s release a precondition to closer relations with China,” Sebastian Lai said at a press conference in London, calling for the UK government to pressure the Beijing government.
Sebastian Lai expressed gratitude to the US and praised President Donald Trump for showing moral clarity on the case, both while campaigning and while in office. President Trump will visit China at the end of March. He previously stated that he raised the possibility of Lai’s release with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a meeting in South Korea last year.
Last Thursday, the Hong Kong Court of Appeal quashed the fraud convictions against Jimmy Lai, meaning he will leave prison two to four years earlier than originally estimated. According to The Witness HK, He will still serve his national security sentence until 2042, when he turns 95.
The international community has previously voiced concerns over Lai’s medical condition and called on the Hong Kong government to release him on humanitarian grounds.
