Jimmy Lai is a former newspaper editor and one of Hong Kong’s most prominent prodemocracy activist. He spends about 23 hours per day in solitary confinement while he waits for a trial which could lead to him being sent to prison for the rest of his life.

Exclusive photos taken in recent weeks by The Associated Press show the 75-year old Lai with a book on his hand, wearing shorts and sandals. He is accompanied by two security guards. He appears thinner than when last photographed in February of 2021.

Lai has 50 minutes of exercise time per day. Lai, unlike most inmates who exercise or play football in groups, walks alone through a barbed-wire enclosure measuring 5 by 10 meters (16 by 30 feet) under the scorching summer sun of Hong Kong before returning to his cell.

Lai, the publisher of Apple Daily newspaper (now defunct), disappeared from the public eye in December 2020 after his arrest. Beijing had imposed a security act to suppress a massive prodemocracy campaign that began in 2019 and drew hundreds of thousands on the streets. More than 250 activists were arrested under the Security Law and disappeared into the Hong Kong justice system.

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Photographers could see activists being taken to or from court in another Lai Chi Kok detention centre. In 2021, authorities began blocking this view by forcing detainees to walk along a covered path.

In another case, a court of appeal is expected to make a ruling on Monday regarding a challenge Lai and six activists filed against their convictions and sentences on charges they were charged with organizing and participating in an unauthorised assembly almost four years ago. Other activists include Margaret Ng (Leung Kwok hung), Cyd Ho, Albert Ho, and Martin Lee.

Lai, who is a British citizen, has been accused of conspiring with foreign forces in order to undermine national security, and calling for sanctions or blocks against Hong Kong or China. Lai is also facing a charge under an old colonial law that has been used more and more to suppress dissent: conspiracy to print seditious materials.

The trial was originally scheduled for December last year, but was postponed until September after the Hong Kong government asked Beijing to stop him from hiring a British lawyer.

“My father is in prison because he spoke truth to power for decades,” Lai’s son, Sebastien, said in a May statement to a U.S. government panel, the Congressional-Executive Commission on China.

Sebastien lai said, “He refuses to be silent and continues to speak truth to power even though he’s lost everything. He may die in jail.” “I am proud to be his child.”

Lai allows two 30-minute visits per month from family or friends. They are separated only by glass, and they communicate via phone.

In another case, he received a sentence of almost six years imprisonment in December for fraud charges.

A court in May rejected Lai’s request to stop his security trial, on the grounds that it was being conducted by judges chosen by Hong Kong’s leader. This is a departure for the common law tradition China had promised to maintain for 50 years following the return of the former British colony to China in 1997.

Lai, a diabetic who was diagnosed in 2021 with high blood-pressure while in prison, is classified as a Category A inmate, which is reserved for those who have committed serious crimes, such as murder.