Time to get serious on prosecutorial independence in Hong Kong

At the start of Prosecution Week 2016 in June, the director of public prosecutions, Keith Yeung Ka-hung, complained that, in “politically sensitive cases”, his prosecutors had “on growing occasions been subject to groundless, malicious and unfair personal abuse, from certain members of the public”.

Although everyone sympathises with the difficulties of frontline prosecutors, the solution lies in the hands of Yeung’s boss, the secretary for justice, Rimsky Yuen Kwok-keung, who must now rectify the situation.

While we have a prosecution service which is headed not by an independent prosecutor, as elsewhere in the common law world, but by a government minister, the problems Yeung described will continue, and probably worsen.

Although Yuen’s predecessor, Wong Yan-lung, myopically blocked progress towards an independent DPP in 2011, citing Basic Law obstacles, which the Hong Kong Basic Law Institute clinically debunked, Yeung’s concerns indicate that the department of justice must now get serious about prosecutorial reform.

The high levels of discontent over, for example, political reform, social injustice and inadequate housing, are not going to go away, and many people, in frustration, will undoubtedly resort again to street politics, resulting in more clashes with police and further prosecutions.

Whereas, as Yeung rightly noted, Hong Kong has an independent prosecution system, many people do not believe this, and they will certainly not change their minds as long as a political appointee exercises ultimate authority over prosecutions, which is understandable.