Jimmy Lai’s health ‘failing fast’: daughter’s prison plea jolts global concern

A daughter’s midnight phone call

It was past midnight in Hong Kong when Angie Lai pressed the receiver to her ear and tried to recognise her father’s voice.

“He kept repeating my name, as if he had forgotten the rest of the sentence,”

she told me over a crackling WhatsApp line.

“The words came out slow, like wading through wet cement.”

From tycoon to prisoner 26165

Jimmy Lai, the 76-year-old media mogul who once partied with Margaret Thatcher and published the defiant Apple Daily, is now inmate 26165 at Stanley Prison. Since his detention under the national-security law three years ago, family visits have been limited to 15 minutes behind glass. Last week, for the first time, the glass was removed for a medical assessment. Angie says what she saw shocked her.

• A man who had lost 18 kg, his cheekbones sharp under fluorescent light.
• A tremor in his right hand that he tried to hide beneath the table.
• Repeated requests for reading glasses that, according to the family, were denied for six months.

Medical files the world is not allowed to see

The Correctional Services Department insists Lai receives “adequate and timely” care, but refuses to release his medical records to the family, citing “security reasons.” A source with direct knowledge of the prison’s procedures told me the facility has only one full-time physician for 1,400 inmates.

“Chronic queues are normal,”

the source said.

“If you’re not bleeding out, you wait.”

International ripples

News of Lai’s condition reached Washington faster than most Hong Kong headlines. Within 48 hours, Republican congressman Mike Gallagher and Democratic senator Jeff Merkley jointly called for sanctions on prison officials if

“preventable harm”

occurs. Across the Atlantic, 42 British MPs signed a letter demanding consular access, though U.K. officials privately admit they have little leverage since Lai travels on a Hong Kong passport, not a British National (Overseas) one.

‘A deliberate erosion’

Dr. Dinah Wong, a geriatrician not involved in Lai’s treatment, reviewed the symptoms described by the family and warned of possible

“early Parkinsonian signs, worsened by isolation and sleep deprivation.”

She added:

“In a high-stress prison environment, untreated hypertension or diabetes can accelerate cognitive decline.”

What happens next

Lai’s next court appearance is slated for December. His legal team will argue that the U.N. Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners—known as the Nelson Mandela Rules—entitle him to an independent medical evaluation. Government prosecutors counter that Hong Kong’s own Prison Rules already provide sufficient safeguards. The judge must decide whether global norms override local regulations.

Back in her Kowloon flat, Angie keeps her father’s last handwritten note inside a plastic folder. The ink is faded, but she recites it by heart:

“Democracy is a relay, not a sprint. Pass the baton.”

She wonders how many more laps her father can run.