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UK should make Hong Kong release of Jimmy Lai ‘priority’: son

Sebastien Lai, son of Jimmy Lai, calls on Britain to prioritize his father’s release, emphasizing the need for action against China’s suppression of dissent in Hong Kong.

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1 year ago

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PARIS, FRANCE — The son of Jimmy Lai, a pro-democracy media tycoon jailed since 2020 in Hong Kong, has called on Britain to step up pressure for his father’s release.

Jimmy Lai, a 75-year-old British citizen and founder of the now-shuttered tabloid Apple Daily, is awaiting trial for alleged “collusion with foreign forces” — an offence under a security law Beijing imposed in 2020 to quell dissent in the wake of protests.

In an interview with AFP during a trip to Paris, his son Sebastien Lai said the British government needed to make his father’s case “a political priority” in its dealings with China and the Hong Kong authorities over the former British colony.

“So long as you have a person like Jimmy Lai behind bars it can’t be business as usual,” he said.

In the latest twist in the Jimmy Lai case, a Hong Kong court last month dismissed his challenge of a ruling that banned a British lawyer from representing him, a decision that observers said illustrated Beijing’s ability to trump Hong Kong courts despite the city’s guarantee of judicial independence from the mainland.

Sebastien Lai, who is 28 and has worked for his family’s property development business in Taiwan for the past three years, said Britain owed all its citizens protection, including his father.

“If they don’t stand firm in the protection that this citizen is guaranteed, in a place that they do business with, then, to their great shame, what is the point of having a passport? What is the point of being a citizen?” he said.

Jimmy Lai is facing up to life in prison if convicted.

His trial, scheduled for December last year, was pushed to September.

At the start of this year, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak vowed that his government would resist any “undermining” of a deal guaranteeing Hong Kong citizens existing rights and freedoms for 50 years after Britain handed Hong Kong over to China in 1997.

But Sebastien Lai said London needed to do more. “I’m not asking for people to break my father out of prison or what not,” he said.

“I’m asking the UK to speak out on my father’s case, to put pressure on Hong Kong, because every single person in the free world sees this as something unacceptable.”

‘Clock ticking’

Hong Kong’s common law system, inherited from British colonial rule, is distinct from mainland China’s. But Sebastien Lai said Hong Kong was now using it to justify its political actions.

“What the Hong Kong government is doing right now is using the UK legal system as a moral laundromat,” Sebastien Lai said.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF), a France-based media freedom body, has helped bring Jimmy Lai’s case to global attention, including with a petition signed by 116 media leaders calling for his release.

On RSF’s press freedom ranking of 180 states, Hong Kong is now number 140, a drop of 122 spots in 20 years, the organisation said.

Six other Apple Daily employees risk life in prison on the basis of the security law, according to RSF.

Jimmy Lai has been behind bars since December 2020 and has since been sentenced to more than seven years for unauthorised assembly and fraud.

“Under any legal system with a rulebook, he’s not guilty,” Sebastien Lai said.

“In the end, this is about a man who gave up all that he’s worked for, all the tangible stuff that he’s worked for, for something intangible like liberty,” he said.

Earlier this month, the European Parliament voted overwhelmingly in favour of a petition calling for his release.

While campaigning for support in France, Sebastien Lai met with officials at the foreign ministry, Paris city hall and lawmakers from the Senate and National Assembly.

“France understands the struggle of a man who gave everything for liberty,” he said, adding that his family had strong ties to France where Jimmy Lai got married.

Sebastien Lai said he last saw his father in August 2020, shortly before leaving Hong Kong. “He’s 75. The clock is ticking.”

— AFP

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AFP

Singapore hangs 14th drug convict since last year

Singapore executed Mohd Aziz bin Hussain, convicted of drug trafficking, amid a resumption of executions in 2022. Another woman prisoner, Saridewi Djamani, faces execution.

Amnesty International urged Singapore to halt the executions, questioning the deterrent effect of the death penalty.

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1 year ago

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26 July 2023

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SINGAPORE, SINGAPORE — Singapore on Wednesday hanged a local man convicted of drug trafficking, officials said, two days before the scheduled execution of the first woman prisoner in the city-state in nearly 20 years.

Mohd Aziz bin Hussain, convicted and sentenced to death in 2017 for trafficking “not less than 49.98 grams” (1.76 ounces) of heroin, was executed at Changi Prison, the Central Narcotics Bureau said in a statement.

The 57-year-old was the 14th convict sent to the gallows since the government resumed executions in March 2022 after a two-year pause during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Hussain’s previous appeals against his conviction and sentence had been dismissed, and a petition for presidential clemency was also denied.

A woman drug convict, 45-year-old Saridewi Djamani, is scheduled to be hanged on Friday, according to the local rights group Transformative Justice Collective (TJC).

She was sentenced to death in 2018 for trafficking around 30 grams of heroin.

If carried out, Djamani would be the first woman executed in Singapore since 2004, when 36-year-old hairdresser Yen May Woen was hanged for drug trafficking, according to TJC activist Kokila Annamalai.

Singapore has some of the world’s toughest anti-drug laws — trafficking more than 500 grams of cannabis or over 15 grams of heroin can result in the death penalty.

Rights watchdog Amnesty International on Tuesday urged Singapore to halt the executions, saying there was no evidence the death penalty acted as a deterrent to crime.

“It is unconscionable that authorities in Singapore continue to cruelly pursue more executions in the name of drug control,” Amnesty death penalty expert Chiara Sangiorgio said in a statement.

Singapore, however, insists that the death penalty has helped make it one of Asia’s safest countries.

Among those hanged since last year was Nagaenthran K. Dharmalingam, whose execution sparked a global outcry, including from the United Nations and British tycoon Richard Branson, because he was deemed to have a mental disability.

— AFP

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AFP

Singapore to execute first woman in nearly 20 years: rights groups

Singapore set to execute two drug convicts, including first woman in 20 years, despite rights groups’ calls to stop.

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1 year ago

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25 July 2023

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SINGAPORE, SINGAPORE — Singapore is set to hang two drug convicts this week, including the first woman to be sent to the gallows in nearly 20 years, rights groups said Tuesday, while urging the executions be halted.

Local rights organisation Transformative Justice Collective (TJC) said a 56-year-old man convicted of trafficking 50 grams (1.76 ounces) of heroin is scheduled to be hanged on Wednesday at the Southeast Asian city-state’s Changi Prison.

A 45-year-old woman convict who TJC identified as Saridewi Djamani is also set to be sent to the gallows on Friday. She was sentenced to death in 2018 for trafficking around 30 grams of heroin.

If carried out, she would be the first woman to be executed in Singapore since 2004 when 36-year-old hairdresser Yen May Woen was hanged for drug trafficking, said TJC activist Kokila Annamalai.

TJC said the two prisoners are Singaporeans and their families have received notices setting the dates of their executions.

Prison officials have not answered emailed questions from AFP seeking confirmation.

Singapore imposes the death penalty for certain crimes, including murder and some forms of kidnapping.

It also has some of the world’s toughest anti-drug laws: trafficking more than 500 grams of cannabis and 15 grams of heroin can result in the death penalty.

At least 13 people have been hanged so far since the government resumed executions following a two-year hiatus in place during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Rights watchdog Amnesty International on Tuesday urged Singapore to halt the impending executions.

“It is unconscionable that authorities in Singapore continue to cruelly pursue more executions in the name of drug control,” Amnesty’s death penalty expert Chiara Sangiorgio said in a statement.

“There is no evidence that the death penalty has a unique deterrent effect or that it has any impact on the use and availability of drugs.

“As countries around the world do away with the death penalty and embrace drug policy reform, Singapore’s authorities are doing neither,” Sangiorgio added.

Singapore insists that the death penalty is an effective crime deterrent.

— AFP

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