21st August 2025 – Legal Initiatives for Vietnam (LIV) and a coalition of 72 human rights and press freedom organisations are urging British Prime Minister Keir Starmer to secure the release of publisher Jimmy Lai, whose health is dangerously deteriorating after over 1,680 days in detention in Hong Kong.
The coalition demands that the Apple Daily founder, who faces a possible life sentence under trumped-up national security charges, be allowed to reunite with his family in the United Kingdom and receive the medical treatment he urgently needs.
After nearly five years in detention, the health of the Apple Daily founder and laureate of the 2020 RSF Press Freedom Award has sharply declined. The start of closing arguments in his ongoing trial was postponed due to his heart problems, which left him feeling as though he was “collapsing.” When he eventually appeared in court on 18 August 2025, he was wearing a heart monitor and is currently taking medication. The court rejected Lai’s lawyers’ request for him to be excused from attending the hearings due to his health.
Jimmy Lai is being held under exceptionally harsh solitary confinement conditions, restricted to just 50 minutes of “exercise” per day, with barely any access to natural light. Already suffering from diabetes and other chronic illnesses, he is being denied specialist medical care, putting him at immediate risk of potentially fatal complications.
“Each passing day increases the risk that Jimmy Lai may die in prison. As Lai is a British national, his case requires urgent action from his government. We call on Prime Minister Keir Starmer to move from words to deeds and demand the Chinese regime to release him immediately on medical grounds, so that he can reunite with his family in the UK and receive the care he desperately needs.” Antoine Bernard, RSF Advocacy and Assistance Director
Originally scheduled to last 80 days, Lai’s trial has dragged on for over 140 days since it began in December 2023. Throughout his detention and the proceedings he has been systematically denied a fair trial: barred from choosing his own legal counsel, deprived of a jury, and faced with testimony from a so-called “witness” who was reportedly tortured. Despite the prosecution concluding its case in early March, the court has repeatedly delayed the trial, underscoring the authorities’ determination to prolong Lai’s ordeal.
For more than three decades, Jimmy Lai has worked to uphold the values of press freedom, making him a recurring target for the authorities. In 1995, he launched Apple Daily, one of the last major news outlets openly critical of the Chinese regime. Following a raid, the newspaper was forcibly shut down in 2021, and seven of its journalists, including Lai, were arrested and prosecuted.
Since 2020, the Hong Kong government has prosecuted at least 28 journalists, 8 of whom are currently detained. Hong Kong is ranked 140th in RSF’s 2025 World Press Freedom Index, having plummeted down the rankings from 18th place in just two decades. China itself ranks 178th of the 180 countries and territories surveyed.