Letters | Hong Kong extradition protests risk repeating the errors of 2014 Occupy movement
- In 2014, protesters refused to compromise on how universal suffrage could be achieved. Today’s extradition protesters are taking the same non-yielding stance, at a cost to the rule of law and Hong Kong’s democratic development
For instance, the offence had to be a crime punishable by at least seven years’ imprisonment instead of the three years proposed initially; various white-collar and computer-related crimes were excluded, leaving mainly crimes like murder and rape; a provision was made that the request for extradition must come from a central authority, such as the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, not local authorities; and the government would look into whether the convicted offender could choose to serve the sentence in Hong Kong.
These would be on top of safeguards under existing extradition agreements, such as an open court hearing and the right to appeal, judicial review and legal aid.
According to Legco’s normal practice, more critical changes were likely to have been made in the relevant Bills Committee. What might those changes have been?