1,000 Days in Solitary Confinement

Lai's son Sebastien has been traveling around to rally support

One thousand days in jail. Most of us have no idea what that is like, but that is how long Apple Daily founder Jimmy Lai Chee-ying has been behind bars. 

He was supposed to go on trial earlier this week for his alleged offences against national security and sedition, but it has been now further postponed to December 18. This original trial was supposed to start December 1, 2022, then to December 13 of the same year, then to September this year and now December.

By that point he will have been in solitary confinement for three years before the trial has even begun.

Lai has been in jail since December 2022

Meanwhile his son Sebastien has been touring around trying to drum up support. He has pleaded in Britain for government officials to take up Lai's case as he is a British citizen, but to no avail; they have rebuffed his requests for meetings.

Sebastien Lai has attended various journalism conferences in Europe talking about his father and the need to defend freedom of the press. For this he has received sympathetic ears from editors and journalists, but not many understand the complex situation in Hong Kong and the changes that have happened there.

At 28-years-old, Sebastien Lai is doing his best to publicise his father's case, but has now raised fears of his father's health.

"I don't want to see my father die in jail. He's 75, he's in prison, he does risk just dying. It is very worrying," he said.

Lai's son has seen pictures of his father taken by an Associated Press photographer, when the Hong Kong businessman was led out by guards to have his daily exercise in the maximum-security prison.

Sebastien worried about his father's health

"Some part of me was happy because he's still the same... [but] it also reminded me of his age," Sebastien Lai said. "You never know what's going to happen tomorrow at that age."

However, his father is known to have a strong sense of conviction and belief in God. 

One only wonders how he manages to pass the time and retain his sanity...