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Hong Kong’s chief John Lee has requested Beijing to rule on whether or not international legal professionals can work on nationwide safety instances.
The request on Monday got here after Hong Kong’s high court docket rejected a bid by town’s Division of Justice to stop a British barrister from representing jailed media tycoon Jimmy Lai.
The professional-democracy campaigner faces collusion costs in a landmark nationwide safety case that is because of start on Thursday.
Talking to reporters hours after the Courtroom of Closing Attraction issued its ruling, Lee stated he would ask China’s Nationwide Folks’s Congress Standing Committee for an interpretation on the difficulty, and that it might be “acceptable” for the federal government to hunt a delay to the beginning of Lai’s trial.
Lee’s transfer could be solely the sixth occasion of China’s high legislative physique weighing into authorized issues in Hong Kong, a former British colony that, underneath a “one nation, two techniques” association, is assured judicial independence from Beijing.
“There isn’t a efficient means to make sure that a counsel from abroad won’t have a battle of curiosity due to his nationality,” Lee instructed reporters. “And there may be additionally no means to make sure he has not been coerced, compromised or in any approach managed by international governments, associations or individuals.”
Lee additionally stated there was no technique of guaranteeing a international lawyer wouldn’t expose state secrets and techniques that may emerge throughout a nationwide safety trial.
Beijing imposed the sweeping nationwide safety regulation on Hong Kong in June 2020 after sometimes-violent protests rocked town for months the 12 months earlier than. The laws — which punishes acts of secession, subversion, terrorism, and collusion with international forces with as much as life in jail — has been extensively condemned by Western governments and human rights teams.
Nationwide safety instances
Lai, one of the vital distinguished Hong Kong critics of China’s Communist Get together management, together with Xi Jinping, faces two counts of conspiracy to commit collusion with international international locations, in addition to a sedition cost linked to his Apple Every day newspaper that was compelled to shut in June 2021 after a police raid and a freeze on its property.
The 74-year-old, who was arrested in December 2020, is already serving a 20-month jail sentence for his function in unauthorised assemblies. He’s additionally anticipating a sentencing over his fraud conviction subsequent month.
The lawyer in Lai’s nationwide safety case is Timothy Owen, a London-based authorized veteran who specialises in legal and human rights regulation.
Hong Kong makes use of the identical widespread regulation jurisdiction as the UK.
Aside from having abroad judges within the metropolis’s courts, legal professionals from different widespread regulation jurisdictions can work throughout the metropolis’s authorized system, particularly when their experience is required for some instances.
Hong Kong’s Division of Justice, nevertheless, has made repeated makes an attempt to dam Owen from representing Lai.
Final month, the decrease court docket granted the approval for him to symbolize Lai, saying it was within the public curiosity to have an eminent abroad specialist concerned on the trial. And on Monday, the Courtroom of Closing Attraction gave a ultimate ruling on the matter, rejecting the Division of Justice’s software on technical grounds.
The panel of three judges on the highest court docket — Chief Justice Andrew Cheung, Roberto Ribeiro and Joseph Fok — in a written judgement, criticised the Division of Justice for “elevating undefined and unsubstantiated points stated to contain nationwide safety which weren’t talked about or explored within the Courts beneath”.
However they left open the overarching query of whether or not barristers from abroad ought to in precept be excluded from nationwide safety instances.
Authorized specialists and rights teams on Monday expressed concern over Lee’s choice to ask Beijing to intervene in Lai’s case.
Lee’s transfer “is in follow making of a brand new rule slightly than an interpretation of an current regulation,” stated Professor Johannes Chan Man-mun, the previous dean of the School of Legislation on the College of Hong Kong. “There are far-reaching implications in any such interpretation which can severely compromise Hong Kong as a world metropolis,” he instructed the South China Morning Put up.
Reporters With out Borders additionally criticised Lee’s transfer, urging Hong Kong’s authorities to permit Lai a illustration of his personal selecting.
#HongKong authorities ought to enable #JimmyLai a illustration of his personal selecting! Assist RSF by signing and sharing the enchantment calling on the authorities to #FreeJimmyLai!👇https://t.co/91UJpRToN2 2/2
— RSF (@RSF_inter) November 28, 2022
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