EU calls for ‘immediate and unconditional’ release of Jimmy Lai after his jail sentence
The European Union has called for the “immediate and unconditional” release of the Hong Kong pro-democracy figure, Jimmy Lai, after he was sentenced to 20 years in prison, the harshest penalty handed down for national security offences in Hong Kong.
In a strongly worded statement released just now, a spokesperson for the EU’s diplomatic service said the EU “deplores the heavy prison sentence” and called for his immediate release, “also in consideration of his advanced age and health condition.”
She added:
“The politically motivated prosecution of Jimmy Lai and the former Apple Daily executives and journalists harms Hong Kong’s reputation.
The EU calls on the Hong Kong authorities to restore confidence in press freedom in Hong Kong, one of the pillars of its historic success as an international financial centre, and to stop prosecuting journalists.”
Key events
Lai’s son warns Hong Kong court decision amounts to ‘life sentence’ as ‘time is running out’
Sebastien Lai, Jimmy Lai’s son, has just been speaking to BBC News, offering his first reaction to his father’s overnight sentence.
He said:
“It’s obviously heartbreaking, but unfortunately it’s not unexpected. Look, I think that what was unexpected was that it took five years to get to this point. The last five years, my father has spent in solitary confinement in the maximum security prison.”
He warned that with his father’s age and health conditions, this could essentially be a “life sentence.”
“Unfortunately, time is running out for my father. The clock is ticking at his age, given the conditions and he’s got heart issues. He’s lost ten kilos over the last year alone. Time is not on his side.”
He added that:
“In a time when we’re talking about closer relationships to China, a normalisation of relationships … despite all the national security concerns that we have, rightly so, in this country … if they can’t even put a 78 year old man who’s guilty of nothing more than giving all that he has to stand up for freedom and liberty for the people of Hong Kong on a plane and sending him back here now, especially given his deteriorating health, that tells you all you need to know about the relation that we have with China.”
Ukraine faces ‘one of most challenging electricity situations’ during war, Lviv mayor warns
Jakub Krupa
Lviv mayor Andriy Sadovyi has warned this morning that Ukraine faces “one of the most challenging electricity situations in the past four years” as it nears the fourth anniversary of the full-scale Russian aggression later this month.
The latest overnight Russian strikes killed at least three people in Odesa and Kharkiv, local authorities reported.
Ukraine is seeking to accelerate the peace talks with Russia and the US, after the country’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy revealed that the US administration has given Ukraine and Russia yet another deadline to reach a peace settlement, and is now proposing the war should end by June.
Ukraine’s foreign minister Andrii Sybiha said on Sunday that Kyiv was “ready to speed up peace efforts,” as he thanked for the US leadership on the issue.
“It is up to Russia to demonstrate its willingness to advance diplomacy instead of war. So far, we can only see new strikes and disregard for peace efforts,” he said.
He also repeated his call to put more pressure on Moscow “so that it starts treating peace efforts seriously.”
Elsewhere, we will be looking at reactions to last night’s presidential vote in Portugal, and other stories breaking across the continent.
It’s Monday, 9 February 2026, it’s Jakub Krupa here, and this is Europe Live.
Good morning.
EU calls for ‘immediate and unconditional’ release of Jimmy Lai after his jail sentence
The European Union has called for the “immediate and unconditional” release of the Hong Kong pro-democracy figure, Jimmy Lai, after he was sentenced to 20 years in prison, the harshest penalty handed down for national security offences in Hong Kong.
In a strongly worded statement released just now, a spokesperson for the EU’s diplomatic service said the EU “deplores the heavy prison sentence” and called for his immediate release, “also in consideration of his advanced age and health condition.”
She added:
“The politically motivated prosecution of Jimmy Lai and the former Apple Daily executives and journalists harms Hong Kong’s reputation.
The EU calls on the Hong Kong authorities to restore confidence in press freedom in Hong Kong, one of the pillars of its historic success as an international financial centre, and to stop prosecuting journalists.”
#calls #release #Jimmy #Lai #politically #motivated #prosecution #Europe #live #World #news