Locked up for more than four years and ailing, Hong Kong’s pro-democracy media mogul Jimmy Lai would only become a greater symbol if he died in prison, his son said.

On a visit to Washington, Sebastien Lai was meeting US officials and lawmakers as he appealed for greater international pressure on China and Hong Kong’s pro-Beijing authorities to free his father.

“It’s horrible for me to say this, but if my father dies in prison, he’s actually a stronger symbol of freedom, of martyrdom for your beliefs,” Lai told AFP in an interview Monday.

He said that freeing his father would be in Beijing’s own interest.

“As you’ve seen with a lot of dissidents, once they’re released, they lose a lot of that, quote-unquote, power,” he said.

“He’s already been there for five years. He’s served whateve

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