Hong Kong’s Chief Executive, John Lee, is seeking Beijing’s intervention after Hong Kong’s top court ruled against the government in a national security case involving pro-democracy newspaper tycoon Jimmy Lai.
The Court of Final Appeal rejected a government bid to stop a senior lawyer from the UK representing Lai at his coming trial.
Lee will submit a report to Beijing’s Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC) to offer their interpretation on the national security law vis-a-vis the admission of foreign lawyers. An NPC decision would have more weight than the top court’s ruling.
The court’s decision was a legal setback for the city’s authorities, which have been conducting a crackdown on political opponents since the law was imposed by China in 2020.
Lai, the founder of the now-defunct Apple Daily newspaper, was scheduled to stand trial last Thursday on charges that he conspired to collude with foreign countries to impose sanctions on China.
Beijing had earlier promised that Hong Kong would be allowed to keep its colonial-era rights and freedoms until 2047.
Hong Kong has a long-held common law tradition of allowing British lawyers to be admitted to the city’s justice system, to act either for defendants or for the government.
Beijing last overruled a Court of Final Appeal decision in 1999, two years after the city’s handover to China by the UK.
Government lawyers had argued that foreign counsel aren’t suitable to handle most national-security cases, as the law originated from the laws of mainland China, and not the common-law system Hong Kong or British lawyers operate in.
They also contended that it would be impossible to ensure that overseas counsels would keep state secrets from trials confidential, once they leave the city.