Jimmy Lai: Jailed Hong Kong tycoon's 'teeth rotting and fingernails falling off'
www.bbc.com
The daughter of Jimmy Lai tells the BBC that her father's health is deteriorating in prison.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/48301399

The daughter of Jimmy Lai, the pro-democracy tycoon jailed in Hong Kong, has expressed concerns about her father’s deteriorating health in prison, saying that his fingernails “sometimes fall off” and his teeth are rotting.

Lai, 78, has been detained since December 2020 and faces life in prison. Earlier this month he was convicted of colluding with foreign forces under the city’s controversial national security law (NSL).

Hong Kong and Chinese authorities have denied that Lai has been mistreated in prison, saying he is in “good health”.

The BBC has seen a letter written by Lai’s family urging UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer to call for Lai’s release when he meets Chinese President Xi Jinping next month.

His daughter Claire Lai, who is in exile in London, told the BBC that she fears she “may never see him again”.

“Of course I worry that my father is going to be a martyr, and I don’t want him to be a martyr. But I would not be here today, I would not be speaking out if I didn’t think this was his best chance of reuniting with our family.”

She described her father as an “extremely robust and strong man” when he went to prison, but said over the last year he has “lost a significant amount of weight”.

"He is diabetic, he has heart issues which he never had in the past. He has fingernails that turn purplish grey and sometimes fall off. He has teeth that are rotting.

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  • vga@sopuli.xyzEnglish
    2·
    33 minutes ago

    Yet another piece of evidence in the already rather massive “CCP is evil” pile.

  • Tiger666@lemmy.caEnglish
    412·
    9 hours ago

    How rich was this guy? Pro democracy, more like pro capitalism.

    • AmidFuror@fedia.io
      3·
      3 hours ago

      You forgot to “whatabout” the US treatment of immigrants in detention. Or is that another account’s job?

      • Eldritch@piefed.socialEnglish
        1·
        3 hours ago

        Ain’t it the truth. This is abominable treatment regardless of who’s doing it. You can tell a lot about a society by how it treats those “outside”. And those who hypocritically defend their abuse. Abuse isn’t justice, and will not be a deterrent. But eventually another rallying cry.

        Prison should only be for those beyond rehabilitation. Even then it should not be such conditions. Any person or society that tolerates it is not benevolent or “good”.

        • BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.todayEnglish
          1·
          52 minutes ago

          Sociopathic Oligarchs are advocating for this type of treatment, or worse, for virtually everybody who isn’t them, so I’m not really concerned when one of them gets a taste of their own medicine. I just hope all the rest of them are seeing this, and worrying that someday that WILL be them.

          • Eldritch@piefed.socialEnglish
            1·
            40 minutes ago

            You should be. Showing that you can be as bad or worse than oligarchs. Doesn’t defeat the oligarchs. It just creates new oligarchs. Ones who will just as happily give you the exact same treatment for the crime of disagreeing with them.

            • BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.todayEnglish
              1·
              8 minutes ago

              Right, it’s better to be polite to the people who are trying to enslave and oppress you. They will most definitely reward your obsequence. Good luck with that strategy.