Jimmy Lai's son says the jailed Hong Kong democracy campaigner is suffering serious health decline ahead of sentencing

Jimmy Lai's son says his father is baking in a concrete cell. Sebastien Lai described the space to Metro as roughly six feet by ten, with the window blocked off, so that in summer the heat is trapped inside. Hong Kong, he noted, routinely passes 33 degrees on more than 50 days a year, with 100 percent humidity. His father, he said, essentially bakes.

The 78-year-old founder of the Apple Daily tabloid has now been convicted under Hong Kong's national security law and faces the possibility of life in prison. The charges were conspiracy to publish seditious publications and conspiracy to collude with foreign powers. The verdict followed a 156-day trial, and sentencing is expected early in the new year. Human rights groups have condemned the outcome.

Sebastien Lai says the years of detention have taken a visible toll. Lai has been in jail since December 2020, five years in all, and his son says his health is rapidly deteriorating. He has lost 10 kilos in the past year alone. According to his son, he has rashes that bleed, which have led to muscle infections, and his nails have fallen off and his teeth are rotting. At his age and in those conditions, Sebastien said, the decline is no surprise. These accounts come from the son; the reporting does not include independent confirmation of them.

Lai first became known as a businessman, the founder of the international clothing brand Giordano. He arrived in Hong Kong at 12, while it was still under British control, and he remains a British citizen. His political voice emerged when he began writing columns criticising the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, when Chinese troops violently crushed student-led demonstrations in Beijing.

He went on to build a publishing business. Next Magazine began in 1990, and Apple Daily first appeared in 1995. A Catholic, Lai is said to have named the paper after the forbidden fruit eaten by Eve in the Garden of Eden. The outlets were openly critical of the Chinese government, which took over the territory from the UK in 1997. Apple Daily backed the pro-democracy protests of 2019 and 2020, which drew a forceful response from those in power.

The pressure became overwhelming when China introduced the national security law in 2020. The legislation reduced Hong Kong's autonomy and cracked down further on dissent, following the enormous protests that had filled the city's streets in previous months. This came 13 years after the principle of one country, two systems was supposedly established. The authorities pressured Apple Daily into closing in June 2021. By then Lai was already seen as an icon of the movement, and had been in prison since the end of 2020.

Prosecutors flagged his meetings with then-Vice President Mike Pence and then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during Donald Trump's first term, where he spoke about Hong Kong's situation.

In London, a spokesperson for Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the government completely condemns the verdict. The spokesperson said it will keep appealing to the Chinese government, ahead of sentencing, for Lai's release and for access to medical treatment, and called the prosecution politically motivated. Lai's case, the spokesperson said, has been a priority for the government and the Prime Minister. Starmer is expected to make an official visit to Beijing next year, so the sentence and the British appeals will likely land close to that trip.