AP gets rare glimpse of jailed Hong Kong pro-democracy publisher Jimmy Lai
AP gets rare glimpse of jailed Hong Kong pro-democracy publisher Jimmy Lai
The Associated Press got a rare glimpse of jailed publisher and prominent pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai.
Does AP also get a "glimpse" of the drugged and tortured Julian Assange?
They have a whole page dedicated to him: https://apnews.com/hub/julian-assange
I also get a chuckle when people attack the AP. I guess non profit collectives are threatening to communists. ;)
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Unlike most other inmates, who play football or exercise in groups, Lai walks alone in what appears to be a 5-by-10-meter (16-by-30-foot) enclosure surrounded by barbed wire under Hong Kong’s punishing summer sun before returning to his unairconditioned cell in the prison.
The publisher of the now-defunct Apple Daily newspaper, Lai disappeared from public view in December 2020 following his arrest under a security law imposed by Beijing to crush a massive pro-democracy movement that started in 2019 and brought hundreds of thousands onto the streets.
In a separate case, an appeals court is due to rule Monday on a challenge that Lai and six other activists have had filed against their conviction and sentencing on charges of organizing and taking part in an unauthorized assembly nearly four years ago.
He was scheduled to go on trial last December, but it was postponed to September while the Hong Kong government appealed to Beijing to block his attempt to hire a British defense lawyer.
“My father is in prison because he spoke truth to power for decades,” Lai’s son, Sebastien, said in a May statement to a U.S. government panel, the Congressional-Executive Commission on China.
Lai, who suffers from diabetes and was diagnosed with high blood pressure in 2021 while in detention, is treated as a Category A prisoner, a status for inmates who have committed the most serious crimes such as murder.
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The British lawyer might have more relevant training among western lawyers depending on how old he is and if he dealt with old HK law. One needs to conclude that either no HK lawyer is willing to take the case (perhaps due to fear of retribution) or the westerners think it would be a bad move (for example, if a HK lawyer simply tells the truth to Congress and does not get punished back in HK). I'm just speculating, though.
Jimmy lai, pro democracy, smell like three letter agency.
Certainly not CCP considering he is pro-democracy. 🙂
CCP
Who? Communist Party of Canada?
What did we do, lend him our last printing press? 🤣
Define democracy.
Back to your point about abuse, though,
... except you don't. Trial by jury is a decent system that decouples justice from political power. In this case, the politicians decided that was an inconvenience and did away with it.
What we should be worried about it is actual abuses, not potential abuses.
Agreed. This was an actual abuse.
What is the context behind this?
Looks like he’s in prison for 2 years on shakey, but mostly self acknowledged fraud charges, and also facing new charges detailed in another comment below.
In May, a court rejected Lai’s bid to halt his security trial on grounds that it was being heard by judges picked by Hong Kong’s leader. That is a departure from the common law tradition China promised to preserve for 50 years after the former British colony returned to China in 1997.
Don't tell me that British laws are actually that corrupt. No way, right?
You are misunderstanding what it means. The article specifically about this explains it better:
When Hong Kong returned to China in 1997, it was promised that trials by jury, previously practiced in the former British colony, would be maintained under the city’s constitution. But in a departure from the city’s common law tradition, the security law allows no-jury trials for national security cases.
It's a departure from the common law tradition. Furthermore common law is a completely different concept from British laws.
I'm not sure I understand your question.
Hong Kong's common law tradition is entirely a colonialist imposition. Worse, common law doesn't apply to modern national security regimes. The US is a common law nation, but it has secret courts, enemy combatants designations, secret evidence, secret charges, and the federal court system has significant departures.
The idea that a national security proceeding in China should be constrained by thousand-year old precedent set in England is not just ridiculous it is a particular kind of white imperialist ridiculous.
I think you need to reread that.
The ‘common law’ was instituted by Britain prior to Hong Kong’s hand-back. It contained measures to bolster the independence of the judiciary under the ‘one country, two systems’ agreement. China over-rode those conventions for this trial, handpicking judges.