A Hong Kong court docket has dismissed an try by jailed media tycoon Jimmy Lai to overturn a choice barring his British lawyer from representing him in an upcoming trial beneath the nationwide safety regulation. Lai had sought a judicial evaluation after Hong Kong’s Nationwide Safety Committee dominated that permitting barrister Timothy Owen to signify Lai may pose dangers to nationwide safety. The committee suggested in opposition to approving Owen’s visa software.
In Hong Kong, the usage of international attorneys has lengthy been permitted. Nonetheless, current modifications empower the town’s chief to ban international attorneys from nationwide safety instances. In December, China’s legislature issued a ruling permitting such bans.
In rejecting Lai’s problem Friday, Chief Choose Jeremy Poon wrote that Hong Kong courts don’t have any oversight over the Nationwide Safety Committee (NSC). Beneath the safety regulation imposed by China in 2020, the courts don’t have any authority over the committee, Poon stated.
“The duties and capabilities of the NSC … are issues nicely past the … courts’ institutional capability,” Poon wrote in his ruling.
Lai’s lawyer had argued that with out judicial evaluation of the NSC, “Hong Kong is saying goodbye to an enormous chunk of our rule of regulation.”
The ruling comes amid issues over Hong Kong’s press freedoms, which have fallen dramatically in international rankings in recent times. Nonetheless, the Hong Kong authorities says press freedom stays protected, and international interference within the metropolis’s judicial proceedings won’t be tolerated.
Source / Picture: jurist.org
