Hong Kong extradition law: Beijing-friendly legal heavyweight Albert Chen breaks silence to call for extra safeguards on contentious proposal
- Chen had earlier cast doubts over proposal to amend city’s extradition laws that would allow transfer of fugitives to jurisdictions including mainland China
- He recommends exploring improvements such as empowering local courts to hand over fugitives only to places that could provide fair trials
A Beijing-friendly legal scholar has called for extra safeguards on an embattled extradition bill, such as empowering local courts to hand over fugitives only to jurisdictions that could provide fair trial.
Professor Albert Chen Hung-yee, who sat on the Basic Law Committee that advises Beijing on Hong Kong’s constitutional matters, spoke on Thursday for the first time since both the central and local governments had turned down a key counterproposal he had backed.
“There is a good chance the bill will be passed in Legislative Council,” Chen said. “So we should work to improve it instead of rejecting it entirely.”
Earlier this month, Chen cast doubts over the proposal to amend the extradition laws, which, if passed, could allow the transfer of fugitives to jurisdictions with which Hong Kong lacks a deal, including mainland China.
The University of Hong Kong academic said the proposal would put the courts in a “difficult and invidious position” and called on the government to consider trying residents locally for crimes committed across the border, an idea first raised by lawmaker Michael Tien Puk-sun.