Exclusive | Hong Kong Bar chief Paul Harris ‘removed’ from national security trial by legal aid officials against activist client’s wish
- Sources say Harris was removed from activist Adam Ma’s legal team weeks before he faced trial at District Court on charges of inciting secession
- Legal Aid Department staff visited Ma at maximum-security Stanley Prison and warned him against hiring Harris, according to insiders
Hong Kong’s Legal Aid Department removed Bar Association chairman Paul Harris, a prominent human rights lawyer called an “anti-China politician” by Beijing, from a national security trial months ago against his activist client’s wish, the Post has learned.
The senior counsel’s removal came even before the department’s recent announcement that it intended to scale back a series of discretionary options, including withdrawing from defendants’ the chance to pick their own lawyers. Critics have warned the changes could harm activists and opposition figures’ access to justice.
Legal insiders on Tuesday said the changes were already under way, affecting a number of activists facing the most serious national security charges, despite only being floated in October.
Among those affected are some of the 47 opposition figures charged with subversion for their part in an unofficial election primary last year, which prosecutors allege amounted to a wider plot to paralyse and overthrow the government.
Sources said Harris was pulled from activist Adam Ma Chun-man’s legal team weeks before he faced trial at the District Court on charges of inciting secession in September, ahead of the introduction of the legal aid reforms.
Ma, the second person convicted under the Beijing-imposed national security law, had his case handed to another senior barrister before trial. The activist, best known by his moniker “second-generation Captain America” due to his protest costume, was jailed in November for five years and nine months.