HONG KONG, September 24, 2026 — Guards at Hong Kong’s Stanley Prison have rehearsed the procedures to follow if 78-year-old political prisoner Jimmy Lai dies in custody, according to a source with direct knowledge of prison operations cited in a new report by the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong (CFHK) Foundation. The finding is among the starkest in “Still Suffering: Systemic Abuse Continues in Hong Kong Prisons,” published September 15.
What the report documents
The report — a follow-up to the foundation’s 2025 landmark study “We Were Made to Suffer: Systemic Abuse and Political Control Inside Hong Kong’s Prisons” — finds that Hong Kong’s Correctional Services Department is refining techniques to isolate and mistreat political prisoners, including British citizen Jimmy Lai, barrister Chow Hang-tung, and Leung Kwok-hung.
It documents:
- Chronic overcrowding: Hong Kong’s prison population reached 11,096 as of March 31, 2026 — its highest level in 20 years — with at least seven major facilities operating above design capacity.
- Increased use of punitive solitary confinement in violation of international rules.
- Further evidence of potentially fatal medical neglect.
Lai, the Apple Daily founder, has spent more than five years in custody and remains in near-total isolation. He is held in a windowless cell and spends roughly 23 hours a day without human contact. In a recent letter to his family, he described being unable to stand without the help of guards.
“The Chinese government keeps claiming that Jimmy Lai is in good health and properly treated. But his family no longer receives medical updates, independent examinations are denied, and prison staff have rehearsed what to do if he dies in custody,” said Frances Hui, CFHK Foundation policy and advocacy manager and author of the report. “We don’t know what prompted those rehearsals, and that’s exactly why independent medical access is so urgent. Democratic leaders must press for Lai’s unconditional release and safe exit.”
The report also documents cases beyond Lai: barrister Chow Hang-tung described the use of pain-inflicting metal restraints when she was transported from her cell to court; a political prisoner, Eric Pun Ho-chiu, died at 38 after previously reporting abuse in prison, with authorities not disclosing the circumstances of his death; and another foreign prisoner died after reportedly begging for medical care for days.
Bipartisan accountability bill
On September 16, Senator Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) and Representative Chris Smith (R-New Jersey) — chair and co-chair of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) — introduced the Jimmy Lai Hong Kong Political Prisoner Accountability Act of 2026 in the Senate and House.
The bill would require the U.S. government to investigate if a Hong Kong political prisoner dies in custody as a result of abuse, medical neglect, inhumane conditions, or other actions by authorities. It would require the identification and sanctioning of the officials responsible and seek coordinated international action.
The introduction came one day after the CFHK Foundation published the “Still Suffering” report, and a week after Rep. Smith held a CECC hearing at which Lai’s son, Sebastien Lai, testified alongside EWTN News, research fellow Steve Yates, and Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation president Mark Clifford.
Summit-day context
The CFHK report argues that, ahead of President Donald Trump’s anticipated September 24 meeting with China’s leader Xi Jinping, Lai’s release should be a condition for diplomatic and economic concessions. Lai’s health has deteriorated over more than 2,000 days in custody, most of it in solitary confinement. His children have warned of heart issues, diabetes, and hypertension; Sebastien Lai told Congress that “if he is not freed soon, he will most likely die in prison.”
Read our earlier coverage of Lai’s case and the summit-day prisoner agenda:
- Twenty years for Jimmy Lai: prison record puts Hong Kong’s harshest national security sentence in human terms
- UK PM Burnham urged Trump to press Xi for Jimmy Lai’s release at the summit
Sources
- CFHK Foundation, “Hong Kong Prison Guards Rehearse for Jimmy Lai’s Death, CFHK Foundation Report Finds” (September 15, 2026)
- CFHK Foundation, “Still Suffering: Systemic Abuse Continues in Hong Kong Prisons” (September 2026)
- CathNews, “Jimmy Lai’s family, advocates appeal for his release” (September 18, 2026)
- IPI, “United States: Trump must make Jimmy Lai’s release a priority during Xi visit” (September 2026)
- NY Post, “My daughter Alysa Liu’s Olympic gold means freedom — and Jimmy Lai deserves no less” (September 23, 2026)
- The Catholic Thing, “Prison guards rehearsed for Jimmy Lai’s possible death” (September 17, 2026)
- USCIRF, “Jimmy Lai” prisoner database