Hong Kong leader gets power to bar foreign lawyers
John Lee Ka-Chiu
China on Friday (December 30) gave Hong Kong leader John Lee power to bar foreign lawyers from trials related to national security law. Previously, even under the sweeping national security law, foreign lawyers were grantedadmissionby Hong Kong courts to work in the city. This will no longer be as easy as before.
Critics of the latest decision say that this has created a "dual state" in Hong Kong's justice system and turned its national security committee, controlled by top Hong Kong and Beijing officials, into an "omnipotent authority" that could overthrow any national security rulings.
Beijing imposed the sweeping national security law in 2020 after huge, and sometimes violent, pro-democracy protests rocked the city a year earlier.
The law has since been used to crush dissent and transform Hong Kong's common law traditions that had differentiated it from China's opaque, party-controlled courts.
Beijing's National People's Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC) decided on Friday that Hong Kong's chief executive should now decide whether overseas lawyers working on cases involving the sweeping new law would pose a threat to national security.
The courts in Hong Kong will now have to obtain a certificate before considering admission for a foreign lawyer. If this is not done, it may invite action from the city's powerful national security committee. The committee is chaired by Lee and Beijing's liaison chief in Hong Kong.
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The committee's decisions are immune from legal challenge.
Lee, a former police chief, welcomed the decision and argued that foreign lawyers could pose a threat because they came from "hostile" countries. He had previously said they could also be subject to coercion or manipulation.
The issue was sparked by jailed pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai hiring senior British lawyer Tim Owen to defend him at his upcoming national security trial.
(With inputs from agencies)
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