Today the Free Press has published Natan Sharansky’s letter to Jimmy Lai with this note: “On Monday, Jimmy Lai, the Hong Kong pro-democracy activist and founder of the newspaper Apple Daily, was found guilty of false charges of sedition and collusion with foreign forces. He now faces a potential sentence of life in prison, after already spending more than 1,800 days in solitary confinement.” Sharanksy writes (thumbnail photo via the Bradley Foundation):
Dear Jimmy,
I heard you kept cool as you listened to the judge hand down your guilty verdict, and then you waved to encourage your family. I was sure this is how you would react.
But I want to warn you: After this powerful feeling that you have won, that you stayed to the end and didn’t give up, some hours later you may experience a minute of weakness when suddenly this burden of the sentence will follow you, and you’ll think, My God.
I’m sure it will be only one short moment, and you will come back quickly to this feeling of victory over them. Of course, one could ask how I can compare and rely on my own experience. After all, I was only 30 when I had to hear my sentence, and you are 78—exactly as I am today. But note, because I remember and cherish every moment of our long conversations that we had before you were arrested, you knew then that maybe in a couple of weeks, or maybe even in a couple of days, you would be arrested, and you were preparing yourself for it. And, at some moment, I asked you: “Jimmy, but you have British citizenship and you are a rich man, so it would be no problem for you to get on an airplane and run away. Don’t you want to try to do that?”
And you answered: “I cannot do it. I will not betray my people. They listened to me, and they trusted me. I will not leave them.”
This regime, these dictators in China and Hong Kong, want you to suffer every day. And every day they want you to be tempted to ask for mercy, to give up, but I know that you will continue to be a proud, free person. And every day of your freedom—your inner freedom—will be another day of your victory. And I’m sure you feel it.
These dictators think that you are facing a life sentence. In fact, they are the ones who will be living as slaves all their lives. One day, the people of Hong Kong, whom you love so much, will be free, and you will forever stay with them.
I’m very proud to be your friend, Jimmy. I love you. Bless you and your family. Be strong.
Natan
