Hong Kong security law not ‘harsh,’ says lawyers’ group chief

HONG KONG — The head of a major Hong Kong lawyers’ association thinks the city’s countrywide stability legislation is “not notably harsh” compared to other jurisdictions.

In an interview with Nikkei Asia, Chan Chak-ming, president of the Law Modern society of Hong Kong, said that the countrywide protection legislation (NSL), enacted in June 2020 by China’s Countrywide People’s Congress, was in line with intercontinental observe.

Less than U.S. federal law, people convicted of terrorism, espionage or treason can be sentenced to dying. The greatest penalty for violations of Hong Kong’s safety is daily life imprisonment.

“When you look at that, at the very least the NSL won’t impose demise penalties,” Chan claimed. “When I refer that the NSL is extra or considerably less in line with worldwide exercise. I am coming from that angle. It is not especially severe.”

The loss of life penalty for terrorism in the U.S., nevertheless, can only be invoked in particular circumstances ensuing in dying. By contrast, Tong Ying-package, the very first human being convicted beneath the NSL, was sentenced last July to nine years’ imprisonment for terrorism and secession for driving a bike into a line of police even though traveling a flag carrying the protest slogan, “Liberate Hong Kong, Revolution of Our Occasions.”

In the only other verdict so much, a guy was sentenced in November to 5 yrs and nine months in prison for inciting secession in relation to numerous incidents in which he had chanted slogans by itself in general public.

Motorcyclist Tong Ying-package times right before he collided with a line of law enforcement on July 1, 2020.

  © AP

Lawful students and rights teams have criticized the NSL, which criminalizes secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with overseas forces, for being vague and wide as well as undermining freedoms certain underneath the city’s constitution to free speech and expression.

Critics have specially questioned the NSL’s reversal of the classic appropriate to bail for arrestees. Underneath the legislation, a suspect has to show their launch would not endanger nationwide stability. Due to this substantial threshold, dozens of suspects have been in pretrial detention for far more than a calendar year, increasing issues about the proper to a fast trial.

The Legislation Culture — which signifies attorneys who give suggestions and put together contracts and other documents below the legal program the metropolis inherited from Britain — elected Chan as its chief past August.

Chan, who has practiced for 24 yrs, specializes in advising wealthy shoppers on tax setting up and personalized trusts and campaigned on a assure to continue to keep the association politically neutral.

“As specialists [like] in other professions, we need to continue to be away from politics when we do our daily employment,” he instructed Nikkei. “I believe it is hard, but we must try out objectively.”

The Legislation Culture past thirty day period established up a three-member committee to investigate issues by countrywide safety police of probable misconduct by lawyers associated with a now-defunct legal protection fund for people arrested amid the city’s crackdown on people suspected of illegal functions through mass protests in 2019.

John Lee, who is due to get workplace as the city’s next chief government on July 1, has said he will make a precedence of plugging stability “loopholes” and will push forward with a law to cover espionage, treason and other crimes.

Some international judges have withdrawn from Hong Kong’s courts, citing considerations about the NSL and political freedoms. 

  © Reuters

Chan admitted that freedoms have been curtailed to a specific extent by the NSL, but mentioned this was in the legitimate interest of safeguarding countrywide protection and that public uncertainty would ebb as further circumstances explain the law’s bounds.

“Then, of class, it will impact self-assurance,” he said. “And that’s my responsibility — to clarify that false impression.”

Chan turned down any suggestion that the rule of regulation or judicial independence experienced been eroded by the NSL but acknowledged some have this perception.

Before this 12 months, prime British judges Lord Robert Reed and Lord Patrick Stewart Hodge withdrew from the city’s highest courtroom, stating their existence appeared to endorse an administration that experienced departed from the values of political liberty and independence of expression.

“The courts by themselves were continuing to run in accordance with rule of legislation values, although they were below tension,” Reed advised the British parliament in April.