Hong Kong trial of Jimmy Lai, Niagara hotel owner, called ‘a sham’

The Niagara-on-the-Lake family of Jimmy Lai will be closely following the trial of the pro-democracy activist in Hong Kong, along with the rest of the world.

But as many international leaders have been reported as saying, and Lai’s niece in town Erica Lepp says her family agrees, there is little expectation it will result in anything but conviction.

“It’s a crazy trial, not a real trial the way we expect in Canada. It’s not a fair trial like we would expect. We don’t feel it will have a positive outcome.”

Lai’s son Sebastien has been “going around the world, advocating for my uncle,” and keeping the family up to date, she says.

He has been seen on international news broadcasts saying the trial has a predetermined outcome, and calling it “a sham.”

Although the family is relieved the trial has started, they expect it to continue for months, possiibly into the fall, “and it will be a long few months,” Lepp says.

At least, as the New York Times and other news sources are saying, “the eyes of the world are watching.”

Hong Kong used to be an amazing place, Lepp says, “but this trial represents what Hong Kong has become.”

The trial is being seen as a test of Hong Kong's  supposedly democratic judicial independence, international news reports say.

Lai, who turned 76 in prison last month, was arrested in 2020 on national security charges under legislation that was initiated that same year. His trial began Monday, under heavy police security, as reported by international news sources, and is considered a landmark case — one that could lead to life in prison if Lai is convicted.

On Tuesday,  day after the trial began, it was adjourned to allow judges to consider Lai’s defence argument that it took too long to charge him with sedition — he was initially jailed on other charges. On Friday, judges ruled against that defence, and the trial is expected to resume next week. His case is being heard before three national security judges, with no jury.

Lai, the founder of Apple Daily, a Hong Kong media outlet openly critical of the Chinese Communist Party, has in the past taken to the streets in protest. He has been charged with conspiring to collude with foreign forces to endanger national security.

The media tycoon is also the owner of Vintage Hotels. He took over the Pillar and Post in 1974, and then the Prince of Wales Hotel, which was sold to Lai by the Wiens family. Later came the Queen’s Landing Inn, and then the Oban Inn, which is still run by his twin sister Si Wai Lai, Erica Lepp’s mother.

Those who have met him and worked with him in town have always had very positive comments about him, although Lai has not been involved in the day-to-day running of the hotels.

“Everyone who has ever met my uncle says he is an amazing, kind man, and they feel honoured to have met him,” Lepp says.

The family is happy to see the recent announcements by Canada’s House of Commons, the U.K.’s British Foreign Secretary David Cameron and the U.S. State Department all calling for the release of Lai. “It makes a great statement. We’re all really encouraged by this,” she says. Although the family has been disappointed that the U.K. didn’t do more earlier to gain the release of her uncle, a British citizen, they are grateful to have Cameron publicly now on his side.

“All of those things happened in the last week, and it was great news.”

Personally, she says, she was buoyed by a letter she received from her uncle about a month and a half ago. “He sent some advice,” along the lines of what he has advised from the time she was a child, “and he sent his love. He said he’s doing as well as he can be doing, and he finds the interesting thing about being in jail is the quiet.”

A devout Catholic, Lai said the quiet “makes him feel closer to God,” reports Lepp. Ten Catholic Cardinals from around the world have also called for his release, she adds.

As for his letter, “he always gives me really good advice, sometimes about business, but also to think with my heart. He’s such a kind, loving man. My heart goes out to my cousins, his children.”

Despite everything he has been through, “the words I received from him were so loving and so positive. That was really amazing to me, considering how long he’s been confined.”