Not a ‘president’s son’: official rejects calls to pardon Hong Kong’s Jimmy Lai
Sun Qingye takes apparent swipe at US politics and warns against foreign groups imposing pressure on local judges
A Beijing official overseeing national security in Hong Kong has dismissed calls from foreign groups to pardon former media boss Jimmy Lai Chee-ying, questioning the need to do so as the defendant is not “a certain president’s son”.
Sun Qingye, deputy director of Beijing’s Office for Safeguarding National Security in Hong Kong, also warned on Friday against putting pressure on local judges.
Lai, founder of the now-defunct Apple Daily tabloid newspaper, completed his oral testimony on his 52nd day in the witness box on Thursday in his defence against two conspiracy charges of collusion with foreign forces and a third of conspiracy to print and distribute seditious publications.
The prosecution of the 77-year-old has drawn widespread condemnation from some Western countries over claims it is politically motivated, with US President Donald Trump previously saying during his election campaign he would “100 per cent” get Lai out of China.
But Sun on Friday questioned the need to pardon Lai as some had suggested.
“Why should we pardon him? What are the reasons to pardon him? He is not a certain president’s son,” he said on the sidelines of the “two sessions”, the nation’s biggest annual political gathering in Beijing.