Jimmy Lai trial: Hong Kong court dismisses mogul’s request to throw out prosecution witness’ ‘irrelevant’ evidence on foreign sanctions
- Prosecution seeks to rely on Professor Wang Guiguo’s testimony to show legal effects of various US acts on city
- Lai’s lawyer calls Wang’s evidence ‘irrelevant’ to determining if tycoon is guilty under national security law
Three High Court judges overseeing Lai’s national security trial decided on Tuesday that they were entitled to investigate the reasons behind numerous US sanctions and the country’s engagement in alleged hostile acts against Hong Kong and mainland China.
They said the usual practice of “comity” – that the judiciary of one state would refrain from sitting in judgment upon the internal affairs of another – was “not applicable and incorrect” in this case.
“A foreign country has no right to interfere with the way in which Hong Kong strives to preserve its core values of rule of law and law and order,” said Mr Justice Alex Lee Wan-tang, who was joined by madam justices Esther Toh Lye-ping and Susana D’Almada Remedios.
“If sanctions are imposed or proposed by a foreign country with a view to influencing the internal affairs of Hong Kong, then mutual respect which is the very foundation of ‘comity’ is not there, not because of any ‘investigation’ or determination of this court, but by the act of the foreign country.”
The ruling delivered at West Kowloon Court followed a dispute on whether to admit evidence of prosecution witness Professor Wang Guiguo, as the trial entered its 10th day.