Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD/Hong Kong: China’s lawmaking body given Hong Kong leader John Lee the power to bar foreign lawyers from pursuing cases related to national security, removing a decision from the city courts, in a move likely to further fuel concerns over judicial independence.
Engaging foreign lawyers by both prosecutors and the defense has long been part of the former British colony’s rule of law traditions.
Hong Kong Court
The move comes after the Hong Kong court postponed a national security trial against a media tycoon and China critic Jimmy Lai to September to give time for a ruling by China’s National People’s Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC).
In November, Lee was asked by the NPCSC to weigh in on matter after the series of failed attempts by Department of Justice to block a British lawyer, Timothy Owen, from defending Lai.
Critics said that Beijing’s intervention in this landmark legal case undermines Hong Kong’s judicial independence after the panel of 3 senior judges on a city’s Court of the Final Appeal in November rejected a government bid to block Owen from representing Lai.
The NPCSC ruling said that Hong Kong courts must now obtain approval from a chief executive before admitting any foreign lawyer without local qualifications to work on national security cases.
Lee said that in the news conference late on Friday, a decision only involves “a tiny area” as they have only looked at whether overseas lawyers could be allowed to participate in national security cases.
