Jimmy Lai’s son says father remains ‘stoic’ in the face of 20-year ‘death sentence’

Jimmy Lai’s son has revealed that his father remained “stoic” and smiled as he was handed a 20 year term by a Hong Kong court, which has been described as a “death sentence”. On Monday (9 February), the 78-year-old was handed the longest sentence so far under Hong Kong’s controversial China-imposed national security laws, which came into effect in 2020 following city-wide protests. He was found guilty in December of two charges of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces, as well as a charge of conspiracy to publish seditious material. Speaking to Wilfred Frost on Sky News, his son Sebastien said that he believes that his father, who has already spent five years in solitary confinement, will most likely die in prison. “He smiled because he knew that this was going to happen. He knew that this was a very real possibility fighting for democracy in Hong Kong.”