Interview with British human rights activist and Conservative politician Benedict Rogers about the imprisoned Jimmy Lai

By Michael Leh

Benedict Rogers is a human rights activist, journalist, author, co-founder and deputy chairman of the Human Rights Commission of the British Conservative Party (Tories). After being denied entry to Hong Kong in 2017, he founded the organization “Hong Kong Watch.” Since 2025, he has been Senior Director of the human rights organization “Fortify Rights,” which focuses its work on Southeast Asia. Born in 1974 and living in London, the Catholic Rogers regularly publishes in respected international media. He is mentioned by name at least 95 times in the verdict concerning Jimmy Lai in Hong Kong. Michael Leh spoke with Rogers about the situation in the Jimmy Lai case.

Benedict Rogers, you are friends with Jimmy Lai and have known him for a long time. Can you describe his personality in more detail? What motivated him not to flee Hong Kong, even though he faced long prison sentences for his commitment to democracy and press freedom? Does his religiosity, his Catholic faith, play a role in this?

Jimmy Lai is an extraordinarily courageous man, absolutely motivated by his Catholic faith to do what he believes is right. As he himself famously has said: “I’ve been one of the troublemakers. I can’t just make trouble and then leave”. He could have left Hong Kong at any moment up until his arrest in 2020. He is a British citizen, and he owns properties in London, Taipei and around the world, so he could have gone almost anywhere, but he chose to stay, knowing what the consequences could be, because he believed it was the right thing to stay with his people, to stay alongside his journalists from the Apple Daily newspaper which he founded and owned, and to stay to defend the truth and the values of freedom, democracy and human rights.

Benedict Rogers © Michael Leh

What can you say about Jimmy Lai’s health? Does he receive sufficient medication and the right medication, for example for diabetes treatment? What are the conditions like in Stanley Prison? How often can he receive visits from relatives? Does he receive spiritual care? Is Cardinal Joseph Zen allowed to visit him?

Jimmy Lai’s health is rapidly declining. He is 78 years old, a diabetic with a heart condition. He has reportedly suffered dramatic weight loss, rotting teeth, rotting finger nails. He has been kept for over five years in solitary confinement, in a small cell where he is denied natural sunlight, held in extreme temperatures particularly in the summer months, and allowed less than one hour’s exercise per day in a confined space. He has not been permitted independent medical care of his choice, and for several years he has been denied the right to receive the Sacrament of the Eucharist. In the early years of his imprisonment, Cardinal Zen was able to visit him, and he does receive family visits – I believe four times a month.

It has been reported that two years of his 20-year sentence will be credited toward his time already served, meaning he will “only” have to spend 18 years in prison. Is there regular early release from prison in Hong Kong after serving a long sentence, as there is in Germany, for example? Or must we assume that he will have to remain in prison for the full 18 years or until his death? Unless early release can be achieved on humanitarian grounds, for example?

For most political prisoners in recent years, there has not been early release from prison with the regularity you might see in Germany. However, if there is enough international pressure on the Chinese and Hong Kong authorities, I believe it may be possible to achieve his release on humanitarian grounds, pointing to his age and deteriorating health. But the argument needs to be made robustly and in a coordinated and sustained way by the international community, both by the UK, the US, the EU, Canada, Australia, Japan and others, and by the Vatican, and meaningful pressure must be exerted and leverage used. If Beijing is made to feel a cost for holding him, and also can be persuaded that the regime has achieved what it wanted by making an example of him, and if it does not want him to die in jail as a martyr, then there is a chance of achieving his release.

It is said that an appeal against the verdict is still possible. Is it known whether the lawyers will appeal, and is a reduction of the sentence still conceivable?

I believe an appeal is possible and it is likely that he and his legal team will appeal, but unfortunately I do not have confidence that the Hong Kong legal system alone will result in the sentence being lifted or reduced significantly. That is why there needs to be sustained and robust international pressure for his release on humanitarian grounds.

You have called for urgent international intervention for the release of Jimmy Lai. Do you have any specific ideas on this? Should the focus be primarily on the humanitarian situation, Lais’s poor health, and his advanced age? There is perhaps a danger that if the nasty show trial and the political motivation behind it are emphasized, Beijing will view everything as a matter of prestige. I would also like to remind you of Beijing’s harsh treatment of another prominent figure, namely Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo, who died in 2017 without ever having been released.

Yes, as I outlined just now, the focus now should be a co-ordinate international effort to persuade Beijing to release him on humanitarian grounds. The UK must work with others – particularly the US, ahead of President Trump’s expected visit to China in April, and with the EU, Canada, Australia, Japan, the Vatican and other countries – for this purpose.

How do you assess the Catholic Church’s behavior in the Jimmy Lai case so far? As far as I can see, the Church in Germany has said very little about him.

The response from the Catholic Church has been disappointing so far. The fact that Pope Leo XIV met Jimmy’s wife and daughter at a General Audience last year was a very welcome step forward, but since then there has been very little said, at least in public. It is time for the Vatican and for the Church worldwide to speak up for Jimmy – to pray for him publicly, to hold vigils for him, to demand his release. Jimmy is the most prominent lay Catholic in Hong Kong and one of the most prominent Catholic prisoners of conscience in the world, and so the Church must do much more. I have called for Pope Leo to speak out, perhaps when he prays the Sunday Angelus, and I have also called for cardinals, bishops, priests and lay Catholics around the world to pray for Jimmy in Masses or vigils, and I hope that will happen.

Protest rally for freedom and democracy in Hong Kong on Alexanderplatz in Berlin. The apples on the table symbolize Jimmy Lai’s newspaper “Apple Daily.” © Michael Leh

Suppose Lai’s release from prison could be achieved. Would he even be willing and ready to leave Hong Kong? Or would it be more likely that he would only be released under strict conditions, such as house arrest, with a ban on speaking publicly or contacting foreigners? There have already been similar precedents with other dissidents.

My understanding is that after five years in solitary confinement, Jimmy would now be willing to leave Hong Kong if he is released. That is what his family is asking for – for him to be released and put on a plane to London to join the rest of his family in exile, to be able to spend the final years of his life with them in freedom. Of course it is possible that the Chinese and Hong Kong authorities must not agree to that and might instead release him into some form of house arrest or with other restrictions in Hong Kong, but we should press for his full release and for him to have the right, if he chooses, to leave Hong Kong as his family are advocating.

How can ordinary citizens from outside help Jimmy Lai? Does he receive mail in prison? For example, if you write to him on his birthday or on religious holidays? What else could civil society do? How about a legal publication by renowned scholars on the verdict against Jimmy Lai? A new gigantic Chinese embassy is to be built in London. How about naming the street in front of it “Jimmy Lai Street”?

Ordinary citizens outside Hong Kong can and should certainly support Jimmy Lai. For Catholics, Christians of all traditions, or indeed religious believers of any faith should pray for Jimmy, organise vigils and public prayers for him. Ordinary citizens of all beliefs could certainly send him birthday cards and letters throughout the year. They could write to their elected Parliamentarians to urge their Parliaments to continue to speak out about Jimmy. Catholics could write to their bishops to urge the Church to do more. Publications, awards, symposiums and other events in his name – to keep his name in the public eye and to honour his remarkable courage – would all be good initiatives. I have myself called for the naming of a “Jimmy Lai Junction” close to the proposed new Chinese embassy in London, and other cities could do the same.

You yourself have often written about Jimmy Lai’s Apple Daily newspaper in the past. What remains of Hong Kong’s former freedom of the press? Are all journalists in Hong Kong who want to express critical opinions standing with one foot in prison? Where are the invisible lines of self-censorship?

The Chinese regime has torn up press freedom in Hong Kong. Almost all independent media outlets have been forced to shut down, many journalists are in prison or have gone into exile, and those that remain have to exercise significant self-censorship to avoid being arrested. There are still brave journalists in Hong Kong who try to report what is happening and to find creative ways to work, but they have to be very careful and cannot express direct criticisms of the regime.

Michael Leh is a journalist in Berlin and a member of the board of the German Section of the International Society for Human Rights (ISHR). The interview with Benedict Rogers was published on February 19, 2026, in the German Catholic newspaper “Die Tagespost.” We are publishing it here with the kind permission of the author.