Hong Kong requests Beijing’s ruling on foreign attorneys

• John Lee asked Beijing if foreign lawyers can work on national security issues.
• Hong Kong’s top court rejected a move by the city’s Department of Justice.
• They wanted to ban a British barrister from representing Jimmy Lai.

John Lee has asked Beijing if foreign lawyers can work on national security issues.

Hong Kong’s top court rejected a move by the city’s Department of Justice to ban a British barrister from representing Jimmy Lai.

Pro-democracy activist faces cooperation allegations in a national security investigation starting Thursday.

Long after the Court of Final Appeal’s verdict, Lee told reporters that he would seek an interpretation from China’s National People’s Congress Standing Committee and that delaying Lai’s trial would be “acceptable.”

Lee’s proposal would be the sixth time China’s top legislative body weighed in on legal affairs in Hong Kong, a former British colony that promised judicial independence from Beijing under “one nation, two systems.”

“There is no practical way to assure a foreign lawyer won’t have a conflict of interest,” Lee said. No way to tell if he’s been coerced, compromised, or controlled by foreign countries, groups, or individuals.

Lee said there’s no way to ensure a foreign lawyer won’t reveal state secrets in a national security prosecution.

Beijing enforced the national security law on Hong Kong in June 2020 after months of sometimes-violent demonstrations. Western countries and human rights groups have criticized the law, which punishes secession, subversion, terrorism, and cooperation with foreign forces with life in jail.

Lai, a prominent Hong Kong critic of China’s Communist Party leadership, including Xi Jinping, faces two counts of conspiracy to commit collusion with foreign countries and a sedition charge linked to his Apple Daily newspaper, which was forced to close in June 2021 after a police raid and a freeze on its assets.

The 74-year-old was detained in December 2020 for his role in unlicensed assemblies. Next month, he’ll be sentenced for fraud.

Timothy Owen, a London-based criminal and human rights lawyer, is Lai’s national security attorney.

Hong Kong follows British common law.

Lawyers from other common law jurisdictions can work in the city’s legal system when their competence is needed.

Hong Kong’s Justice Department has blocked Owen from representing Lai.

Last month, a lower court said it was in the public interest to have an eminent abroad specialist represent Lai. The Court of Final Appeal rejected the DOJ’s application on Monday for technical reasons.

In a written ruling, Chief Justice Andrew Cheung, Roberto Ribeiro, and Joseph Fok criticized the Department of Justice for “citing imprecise and unfounded issues purported to involve national security.”

They left unanswered whether foreign lawyers should be barred from national security cases.

Monday, legal experts and rights groups criticized Lee for asking Beijing to intervene in Lai’s case.

Professor Johannes Chan Man-mun, former dean of the University of Hong Kong’s Statute Faculty, said Lee’s decision “is in practice inventing a new norm rather than interpreting an existing law.” He said that any such interpretation may damage Hong Kong’s status as an international city.

Reporters Without Borders criticized Lee’s move and urged Hong Kong to let Lai choose his own representative.

#HongKong: RSF decries Chief Executive John Lee’s decision to let Beijing choose whether or not Apple Daily founder Jimmy Lai is allowed to be defended by a UK lawyer for his national security trial, despite this right being already confirmed by Hong Kong’s highest court. 1/2 https://t.co/jwPjhranJd pic.twitter.com/nmegLWvRGQ

— RSF (@RSF_inter) November 28, 2022

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