A team of foreign lawyers who criticised the “unlawful” detention of jailed media tycoon Jimmy Lai had acted “completely contrary” to the ethics demanded of the profession, the Hong Kong government has said.
Jimmy Lai being transferred onto a Correctional Services vehicle on February 1, 2021. Photo: Studio Incendo.
Hong Kong’s judicial system and trials had been “blatantly discredited” by an international legal team that claimed to represent the Apple Daily founder, the government said on Sunday night, hours after it issued an earlier statement condemning “misleading” comments on Lai’s national security case.
A government spokesperson said legal practitioners should act on the basis of facts and evidence, but that some overseas lawyers had “fabricated” information about Lai’s custodial treatment. They said the 76-year-old tycoon, who is set to take the stand on Wednesday when his landmark trial resumes, had publicly clarified he had never instructed an international legal team to act on his behalf.
In its first statement, issued at around 2.30 am on Sunday, the Hong Kong government slammed “biased and misleading remarks” by some foreign governments, politicians, officials and media on the its work on safeguarding national security and Lai’s case.
“While Lai Chee-ying’s actual legal representative has recently made a clarification, indicating that he is receiving appropriate treatment and care in prison, it is shocking that the so-called international legal team continues to deliberately publish false information, mislead the United Nations (UN) and abuse its mechanisms,” a government spokesperson said in a statement on Sunday evening.
Jimmy Lai’s son, Sebastien Lai (left) and King’s Counsel Caoilfhionn Gallagher. Photo: FreeJimmyLai, via X.
The two official statements from Hong Kong came days after King’s Counsel Caoilfhionn Gallagher, who described herself as an international counsel for Lai and his son Sebastien Lai, said the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention had found that British citizen Lai was unlawfully and arbitrarily detained in Hong Kong.
Citing an opinion of the working group dated September 26, Gallagher said it had expressed “alarm” that Lai had been placed in prolonged solitary confinement for almost four years, and urged the Hong Kong authorities to remedy the situation. It also asked the Hong Kong government to “investigate the use of evidence obtained by torture.”
“It is a resounding endorsement of what we have said all along: Jimmy Lai is being unlawfully and arbitrarily detained in respect of each and every case brought against him in Hong Kong,” Gallagher, from Doughty Street Chambers in the UK, said.
The law firm also quoted Sebastien Lai as calling for the immediate release of his father, describing his treatment in a maximum security prison as “inhumane.”
On Sunday, the Hong Kong government said Lai had been placed under solitary confinement upon his own request. Individuals in custody may ask to be removed from association with other detainees on the basis of personal safety and well-being. The request is subject to the approval of the correctional services chief.
Stanley Prison. File Photo: Frog Wong, via Google Map.
The comments by the foreign lawyers were “completely fact-twisting” and ” merely a despicable political manoeuvre” intended to smear and attack the Hong Kong government, a spokesperson said.
In January 2023, the local legal team representing Lai in his high-profile national security trial said it was not “professionally associated” with an international group of lawyers who reportedly met with a UK minister over Lai’s case.
Hong Kong law firm Robertsons Solicitors said it “exclusively acts for” Lai in his cases, adding the media tycoon “never instructed anyone apart from his legal team in Hong Kong to act on his behalf” in relation to his criminal and related proceedings in the city.
Lai has been detained since December 2020 awaiting trial under the national security law. The Apple Daily founder was later sentenced to five years and nine months in a separate fraud case involving a lease violation of the defunct newspaper’s headquarters.
His high-profile national security trial began last December, with the court setting aside 80 days for proceedings. He stands accused of taking part in a “conspiracy to collude with foreign forces” under the security legislation, and conspiring to publish “seditious” materials under a colonial-era law.
The trial, which had already exceeded 90 days, was adjourned in July after three handpicked judges denied Lai’s bid to have charges against him dropped. The tycoon is set to testify when the trial resumes on November 20.
