A proposal asking Beijing to “make clear” whether or not abroad counsellors are allowed to participate in nationwide safety court docket circumstances in Hong Kong has been introduced to Beijing’s high choice making physique.
The request was first made by Chief Executive John Lee last month after Hong Kong’s high court docket dominated against the secretary for justice’s attempt to bar King’s Counsel Timothy Owen from representing media tycoon Jimmy Lai in a now-delayed nationwide safety trial.
Lee, in a press release on Tuesday night time, mentioned he “welcomed and thanked the Central Authorities for accepting his suggestion,” and that he would “earnestly await the end result” of the Standing Committee of the Nationwide Individuals’s Congress’ (NPCSC) deliberation.
In line with state media outlet Xinhua, Xia Baolong, director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Workplace, gave a proof of the request to the standing committee on Tuesday, the primary day of the four-day lengthy assembly in Beijing.
The standing committee had beforehand but to point whether or not it could think about Lee’s suggestion and situation a legislative interpretation, with some native political figures saying that the intervention was not obligatory.
Ronny Tong, senior counsel and a member of the Government Council, mentioned that the problem could be resolved by amending local legislation.
‘State secrets and techniques’
The justice secretary, after shedding 4 makes an attempt to dam Owen from being admitted, mentioned that the admission of the UK barrister would endanger state secrets and techniques.
King’s Counsels are the British equal of senior counsel in Hong Kong and require permission to look on the metropolis’s courts.
The trial has since been adjourned to next September. Lai, 75, has been remanded in custody for shut to 2 years since December 2020.
The media tycoon, who based the now-defunct pro-democracy tabloid Apple Day by day, faces 4 fees: two counts of conspiracy to collude with international forces and one rely of collusion with international forces beneath the nationwide safety regulation, and one offence linked to allegedly seditious publications beneath the colonial-era sedition regulation.
Six different former workers of Apple Day by day or its guardian firm Subsequent Digital who have been charged within the case pleaded responsible in final month, and will likely be sentenced after the trial.
The Beijing-imposed nationwide safety regulation, enacted in June 2020, additionally criminalised subversion, secession and terrorist acts, which have been broadly outlined to incorporate disruption to move and different infrastructure.
Support HKFP | Code of Ethics | Error/typo? | Contact Us | Newsletter | Transparency & Annual Report
