IBAHRI condemns the sentencing of Jimmy Lai as an insult to international law
Tuesday 10 February 2026
Jimmy Lai to Final Court 1 February, 2021
The International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI) condemns the sentencing of Jimmy Lai – a 78-year old British-Hong Kong journalist, businessman and pro-democracy campaigner – to 20 years in prison. The sentence is excessively cruel and unjust given his rapidly deteriorating health, recognised by the judges, and is itself confirmation of the politically motivated nature of the trial he has endured for the last two years.
After being convicted in December 2025 for ‘foreign collusion’ and ‘sedition’ under the National Security Law (NSL) and a colonial-era sedition law, the bestowing of a lengthy custodial sentence on Jimmy Lai is in effect a life sentence for his alleged crimes related to his journalism and the peaceful expression of his views. Mr Lai’s sentence is the longest delivered under the NSL.
IBAHRI Co-Chair Mark Stephens CBE said: ‘Jimmy Lai’s case should concern the international community because it exposes profound and well documented failures of legal process in Hong Kong. The proceedings against him have been marked by serious violations of due process and fair trial guarantees, repeatedly identified by UN Special Rapporteurs, international legal bodies and independent civil society organisations. These are not matters of political disagreement, but of legal compliance. At this stage, responsibility for correcting these errors can no longer rest with the Hong Kong SAR authorities alone. As the sovereign power, Beijing must act to address and remedy these procedural failures and ensure that Hong Kong’s courts operate in accordance with China’s international legal obligations. Failure to do so risks confirming that these violations are not aberrations, but the accepted operation of the system itself.’
The NSL has been consistently condemned internationally – including by the IBAHRI – as a legal construction designed to be weaponised by the state to allow for the systematic targeting of journalists, legal professionals and democracy supporters in Hong Kong. Alongside Mr Lai, eight other defendants – including six former Apple Daily executives and two activists – also received lengthy custodial sentences between six and ten years under the NSL. The NSL has been used to effectively wipe out the independent press in Hong Kong, and these lengthy sentences now handed down are intended to ensure the chilling of all free speech in Hong Kong.
IBAHRI Co-Chair, Hina Jilani, said: 'The international community must condemn this sentencing for what it is; the final nail in the coffin for the Rule of Law in Hong Kong. Jimmy Lai’s case has come to represent the deterioration of democracy and international law in Hong Kong. We must not forget him, the eight others sentenced with him, the over 200 others unjustly targeted under the NSL, the hundreds of other journalists, lawyers and democracy supporters who have faced retribution for standing up for the Rule of Law.'
The conviction and sentencing of Mr Lai constitute flagrant violations of international law. This trial has served as a mechanism to punish him for exercising his fundamental rights of freedom of expression and assembly, while systematically failing to uphold due process and fair trial rights. Grave concerns have also been raised by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on torture regarding the use of torture to extract witness testimony. Such actions represent a complete dereliction of China’s obligations under the Sino-British Joint Declaration. It is especially slighting as Mr Lai is a British citizen. Ultimately, his conviction and sentencing, despite global condemnation by world leaders and UN experts, signals Hong Kong’s total abandonment of the international rules-based order. The global outcry over these violations of international law has been treated as a mere inconvenience rather than the response of world leaders to serious breaches of treaty obligations. It is a direct insult to international law which must be responded to by the international community with genuine repercussions.
IBAHRI Director, Baroness Helena Kennedy LT KC, said: ‘Bestowing a 20-year sentence on a 78-year-old man in desperately poor health for his freedom of expression is an abhorrent act of cruelty, intended to ensure that he spends the rest of his days in prison. Jimmy Lai has stood firm in the face of authoritarianism, and the show trial he has endured has served to expose the death of democracy in Hong Kong. He cannot be allowed to pay the ultimate price for this. Every world leader – and especially the UK, as he is a British citizen – must call resolutely for his clemency, and return to the UK on compassionate grounds, to live the rest of his life with his family.’
ENDS
Contact: IBAHRI@int-bar.org
Notes:
- Related items:
- The International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI), established in 1995 under Founding Honorary President Nelson Mandela, is an autonomous entity working to promote, protect and enforce human rights under a just rule of law, and to preserve the independence of the judiciary and the legal profession worldwide.
- Find the IBAHRI on social media here:
- The International Bar Association (IBA), the global voice of the legal profession, is the foremost organisation for international legal practitioners, bar associations and law societies. Established in 1947, shortly after the creation of the United Nations, with the aim of protecting and promoting the rule of law globally, the IBA was born out of the conviction that an organisation made up of the world's bar associations could contribute to global stability and peace through the administration of justice.
Website page link for this news release:
Short link: tinyurl.com/55ehdbvr
Full link: www.ibanet.org/IBAHRI-condemns-the-sentencing-of-Jimmy-Lai-as-an-insult-to-international-law