(OSV News) -- The daughter of imprisoned media entrepreneur and pro-democracy advocate Jimmy Lai said that while the 20-year sentence he was given was heartbreaking, her family, and especially her father, still trusts in "divine providence" for a solution.
In a video interview with OSV News, hours after a court in Hong Kong delivered its ruling Feb. 9, Claire Lai said her family is looking beyond the legal system for a political solution.
"It's a bit of a heartbreak that comes with" the 20-year sentence, she said. "But at the same time, now that he is sentenced, I hope that … between sovereigns, they can come to a political solution for the release of my father."
The 78-year old Lai was given what is believed to be the harshest sentence imposed under China's so-called national security law, which criminalizes secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces.
The law has been criticized for its vagueness and its use in silencing dissent, curbing press freedoms and prosecuting opposition figures, like Lai, who was convicted of sedition and two charges of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces Dec. 15.
Given his age and reports of his deteriorating health, his daughter noted that the term effectively ensures the British citizen would spend his remaining years in prison.
"As much as you can be ready for something, ... it is essentially a death sentence," Claire Lai told OSV News.
While the court has provided 28 days to lodge an appeal, the family expressed deep skepticism that domestic legal avenues remain viable. Claire Lai described the Hong Kong legal system as "highly compromised" and suggested that an appeal would simply be "wasting time" because the ultimate jurisdiction lies with the National People's Congress Standing Committee, or NPCSC, in Beijing.
The NPCSC is the permanent body of China's national legislature, exercising de facto legislative power year-round, thus allowing Beijing to effectively overrule local court decisions in Hong Kong.
"With my limited knowledge of political prisoners -- and really hostages -- what I have learned is that you have to make them feel the weight and feel the pain of keeping them
imprisoned in order to have them released," Claire Lai told OSV News.
"I know that this is not something that will be solved in the once promising and now highly compromised Hong Kong legal system," she added. "What I will say is that (this) is the only way for my father to be released."
The sentence drew widespread criticism from human rights organizations and government authorities, including U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
"The Hong Kong High Court’s decision to sentence Jimmy Lai to 20 years is an unjust and tragic conclusion to this case," Rubio said in a Feb. 9 statement.
Denouncing Beijing for going to "extraordinary lengths to silence those who advocate fundamental freedoms in Hong Kong," Rubio called on "authorities to grant Mr. Lai humanitarian parole."
"My father is someone who suffers from various health issues that have not been made any better and, in fact, have been made worse due to his imprisonment," Claire Lai told OSV News. "China should do the only just and honorable thing here, which is to, to release an aging man in poor health who just wants to join his family and serve our Lord."
Despite the gravity of the sentence, Claire Lai said that her family has been sustained by the prayers of Catholics at home and abroad who have "always been extremely supportive."
"There were countless people who approached me to say that they had been praying for my father," she added. "And, I just want them to know … that my father is very much sustained by prayers."
She also told OSV News that she recently received a letter from her father, who normally ends his messages with a prayer.
"I'm quite an emotional person, so I think it's his way of comforting me as well," she said. "His prayer started with saying that we have an all-knowing and all-seeing God. And he said, 'I am in your hands completely, O Lord.'"
"And I think his complete trust in divine providence and the way that our good Lord has sustained him at times where nothing else has, it's just something, it's just grace that we are extremely grateful for," Claire Lai said.
