Hong Kong
CNN
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Hong Kong’s chief mentioned he’ll ask Beijing to find out whether or not international legal professionals can work on nationwide safety instances within the metropolis, a transfer with repercussions for the upcoming trial of jailed pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai.
The announcement got here Monday, hours after the Court of Final Appeal (CFA), town’s highest courtroom, upheld a decrease courtroom’s verdict to permit British barrister Timothy Owen to characterize Lai in a landmark nationwide safety case that had been on account of begin on Thursday.
Lai, 74, is essentially the most high-profile critic of Beijing charged beneath Hong Kong’s sweeping nationwide safety regulation and faces a most sentence of life in jail on costs of colluding with international forces. He additionally faces one cost beneath a colonial-era sedition regulation.
The authorities had sought a “blanket ban” on international legal professionals engaged on nationwide safety instances, besides in distinctive circumstances, which might have seen Owen faraway from the case.
When the CFA ruling went in opposition to the federal government, Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee mentioned Monday he would ask China’s National People’s Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC) to intervene.
According to an announcement, Lee desires Beijing to resolve whether or not legal professionals who’re “not qualified to practise generally” in Hong Kong can take part in nationwide safety instances.
Lee’s transfer follows repeated makes an attempt by Hong Kong’s Department of Justice to forestall Owen from representing Lai.
“At present, there are no effective means to ensure that a counsel from overseas will not have conflict of interest because of his (national interest),” Lee advised a information convention. “And there are also no means to ensure that he has not been coerced, compromised or in any way controlled by foreign governments, associations or persons.”
This can be the sixth time the NPCSC has made an interpretation on Hong Kong’s legal guidelines because the metropolis was handed over from Britain to China 1997.
Lee mentioned the federal government will search an adjournment to Lai’s trial through the course of.
Lai, whose pro-democracy tabloid Apple Daily was compelled to close down after a police raid final yr, has been remanded in custody for nearly two years. He was sentenced to 13 months in jail in 2021 for taking part in an unauthorized protest.
In August, the tycoon requested to rent Owen to guide his protection, which sparked a authorized debate over whether or not international legal professionals ought to take up authorized illustration on nationwide safety regulation instances.
Since the handover, Hong Kong has maintained the widespread regulation system inherited from British rule.
Its impartial judiciary and rule of regulation have lengthy been deemed key to town’s success as a worldwide monetary heart. The metropolis’s authorized system permits abroad judges within the metropolis’s courts, and legal professionals from different widespread regulation jurisdictions can work on instances the place their experience is required.
However, China’s ruling Communist Party moved to carry Hong Kong consistent with its authoritarian rule by bypassing town’s legislature to implement the safety regulation in response to anti-government protests that rocked town in 2019.
Cases beneath the laws are dealt with by a devoted department of the Hong Kong police and designated nationwide safety judges, elevating concern about Beijing’s potential affect on proceedings.
The Hong Kong authorities has repeatedly denied criticism that the regulation has stifled freedoms, claiming as an alternative it has restored order within the metropolis after the 2019 protests.