British judge upholds conviction against Hong Kong activist Jimmy Lai despite link to prisoner rights charity

A British judge has upheld the conviction against pro-democracy newspaper tycoon – and UK citizen – Jimmy Lai in China, despite being a trustee of a charity dedicated to helping people jailed abroad.

Lord David Neuberger, who is paid £40,000 to sit on Hong Kong’s top court, voted to uphold a 14-month jail sentence for 76-year-old Beijing critic Lai, who supported anti-Beijing protests in 2019 and has been locked up for four years amid a Beijing-led crackdown on dissent.

Mr Lai was jailed in 2021 for taking part in a pro-democracy rally, and faces a life sentence on separate national security charges described as “politically motivated” by Amnesty International.

Lord Neuberger - who said he would remain on the court to support the rule of law “as best he could” - was slammed as “hypocritical” after it emerged he was also a trustee for charity Prisoners Abroad.

Prisoners Abroad, founded in 1978, is a human rights charity which “provides support to British people affected by overseas imprisonment”. It did not respond to a request for comment.

Lord Neuberger, 76, joined Prisoners Abroad as a trustee seven years ago, when he was welcomed as bringing “expertise” and “oversight” to the organisation.

The charity said at the time it was “excited” to recruit Lord Neuberger at a time when the “needs of British people incarcerated overseas was ever growing” and the “right to a fair justice system was needed more than ever”.

Lord Neuberger told The Independent: “My role as a judge in Hong Kong, like the role of a judge anywhere, is to decide cases that come before me according to the law.

“Prisoners Abroad provides humanitarian aid, advice and emotional support to British citizens who are detained in foreign prisons.

“Although judicial decisions can of course result in people going to or remaining in prison, I do not believe that there is a conflict between my role as a judge and my role as a trustee of Prisoners Abroad.”

Mark Sabah, director at the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation said: “It is the height of hypocrisy that Lord Neuberger continues to keep that position. It is shocking. He should resign his position with Prisoners Abroad.”

“You cannot advocate for prisoners abroad while sitting on an appeal of a British citizen overseas who has been persecuted by a system co-opted by China.”

More than 1,800 political prisoners have been detained in Hong Kong in a crackdown since mass pro-democracy protests in 2019.

Two British judges quit Hong Kong’s Court of Final Appeal in June and warned the territory was “slowly becoming a totalitarian state” with the rule of law “profoundly compromised”.

Mr Lai’s appeal centred on the questions of whether his conviction was proportionate to fundamental human rights protections set out in a pair of non-binding decisions by Britain‘s Supreme Court known as “operational proportionality”.

But Lord Neuberger’s judgment said the British court’s decisions should not be followed in Hong Kong as there is a difference between the legal frameworks for human rights challenges in the two jurisdictions.

British judges have sat on the Hong Kong’s Court of Final Appeal since 1997 on a non-permanent basis as part of an agreement when the city was handed back to China by the UK. The judges are all retired from their UK roles,

The intention was to help preserve the rule of law, provide expertise to local lawyers and reassure businesses and financial markets.

The two judges who quit the court in June, Lord Jonathan Sumption, 75, and Lord Lawrence Collins, 83, cited China’s influence on the city.

Lord Collins, who served from 2011, cited the “political situation” in Hong Kong as his reason for stepping down from the court.

Lord Sumption, who was appointed to the court in 2019, said upon his resignation: “I remained on the court in the hope that the presence of overseas judges would help sustain the rule of law. I fear that this is no longer realistic.”