Jimmy Lai is a 78-year-old British citizen who has been imprisoned for more than five years already and has spent most of that time in solitary confinement in a small cell with no natural light and in extreme heat. Now he has been sentenced to a 20-year jail sentence which, given his age and poor health, is effectively a life sentence – and ultimately a death sentence. Convicted under Hong Kong’s draconian national security law of the crime of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces and, under a separate law, of the crime of conspiracy to publish seditious materials. Within days of Hong Kong’s handover to China in 1997, Mr Lai was baptised into the Catholic Church by the courageous Cardinal Joseph Zen, a long-time critic of Beijing. Inspired by his wife Teresa, a devout Catholic, he grew in the faith and, during the past five years in prison, has spent most of his time in prayer, reading spiritual classics and drawing religious pictures. As I wrote in December, just after his conviction, I have one of his prison drawings of Christ on the Cross* hanging on my wall. Over the past five years I have lit candles and said prayers in churches and cathedrals around the world, from Rome to Prague, from Seoul to Taipei, from Warsaw and Kraków to Westminster to Walsingham. I will continue to do so, every day, until Jimmy Lai is freed and reunited with his family. I call on the worldwide Church to join me.
This is part of an article by Benedict Rogers on February 10, 2026
(https://thecatholicherald.com/article/a-life-sentence-in-all-but-name)
* One of the Crucifixion drawings by Jimmy Lai is in the porch, along with the full article by Benedict Rogers.