Jimmy Lai (黎智英), a former newspaper publisher and one of Hong Kong’s most prominent democracy activists, spends about 23 hours a day in solitary confinement in a maximum-security facility while he awaits a trial that could send him to prison for life.
In exclusive photographs taken by The Associated Press in the past few weeks, the 75-year-old Lai can be seen with a book in his hands wearing shorts and sandals and accompanied by two guards at Stanley Prison. He looks thinner than when he was last photographed in February 2021.
Lai is allowed out for 50 minutes per day to exercise. Unlike most other inmates, who play soccer or exercise in groups, Lai walks alone in what appears to be a 5m-by-10m enclosure surrounded by barbed wire under Hong Kong’s punishing summer sun before returning to his un-air-conditioned cell in the prison.
Photo: AP
The publisher of the now-defunct Apple Daily newspaper disappeared from public view in December 2020 following his arrest under the Beijing imposed Hong Kong Security Law to crush a massive democracy movement that started in 2019 and brought hundreds of thousands onto the streets. More than 250 activists have been arrested under the law and vanished into the Hong Kong legal system.
Photographers used to be able to catch a glimpse of activists in remand at another detention center in Lai Chi Kok as they were taken to and from court. Authorities started blocking this view in 2021 by making the detainees walk through a covered pathway.
In a separate case, an appeals court is today to rule on a challenge that Lai and six other activists filed against their conviction and sentencing on charges of organizing and taking part in an unauthorized assembly nearly four years ago.
Lai, a British national, is accused of colluding with foreign forces to endanger national security and conspiring to call for sanctions or blockades against Hong Kong or China. He also faces a charge of conspiracy to print seditious publications under a colonial-era law increasingly used to crush dissent.
He was scheduled to go on trial in December last year, 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 Lai (黎崇恩), said in a May statement to the US Congressional-Executive Commission on China.
“He is still speaking truth to power and refusing to be silenced, even though he has lost everything and he may die in prison,” Sebastien Lai said. “I am very proud to be his son.”
Lai is allowed two 30-minute visits by relatives or friends each month. They are separated by glass and communicate by phone.
Lai, who has 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.
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘BODIES EVERYWHERE’: The incident occurred at a Filipino festival celebrating an anti-colonial leader, with the driver described as a ‘lone suspect’ known to police Canadian police arrested a man on Saturday after a car plowed into a street party in the western Canadian city of Vancouver, killing a number of people. Authorities said the incident happened shortly after 8pm in Vancouver’s Sunset on Fraser neighborhood as members of the Filipino community gathered to celebrate Lapu Lapu Day. The festival, which commemorates a Filipino anti-colonial leader from the 16th century, falls this year on the weekend before Canada’s election. A 30-year-old local man was arrested at the scene, Vancouver police wrote on X. The driver was a “lone suspect” known to police, a police spokesperson told journalists at the
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has unveiled a new naval destroyer, claiming it as a significant advancement toward his goal of expanding the operational range and preemptive strike capabilities of his nuclear-armed military, state media said yesterday. North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Kim attended the launching ceremony for the 5,000-tonne warship on Friday at the western port of Nampo. Kim framed the arms buildup as a response to perceived threats from the US and its allies in Asia, who have been expanding joint military exercises amid rising tensions over the North’s nuclear program. He added that the acquisition