A top U.S. House member has pledged to work with a coalition of rights groups to be a special advocate for Jimmy Lai, the founder of Hong Kong Next Media, and is urging the Hong Kong government to release Lai from prison as soon as possible.
Lai and his newspaper, Apple Daily, which has been out of operation for three years, supported Hong Kong's 2019 pro-democracy movement that was later crushed by China's national security law (NSL) in Hong Kong.
Lai, a British citizen, was arrested on fraud charges in August 2020. He has been in prison and denied bail since December 2020. He also faces charges under Hong Kong's national security law of "conspiracy to collude with foreign forces" and "conspiracy to publish incitement."
Representative Jamie Raskin, ranking member on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, will advocate for Lai through the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission’s Defending Freedoms Project, he announced in a statement first reported by VOA’s Mandarin Service.
“The Chinese Communist Party — like other authoritarian regimes — abuses government power by suppressing and persecuting dissent,” Raskin said in a statement to VOA. “Jimmy Lai’s detention underscores how the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] silences critics to exert power over Hong Kong. I’m proud to sponsor Mr. Lai and demand that the CCP immediately release him and stop attacking pro-democracy advocates.”