Committee backs Hong Kong government bid to ban overseas counsel from national security cases
- Committee for Safeguarding National Security says it supports a legal change ‘as soon as possible’
- The committee also pledges to follow up on work set out in National People’s Congress Standing Committee interpretation of national security law
A high-level committee set up to oversee national security policy in Hong Kong has cleared the way for the government to change the law to prevent British lawyer Timothy Owen from appearing for media tycoon Jimmy Lai Chee-ying in his collusion trial.
The Committee for Safeguarding National Security said after its Wednesday meeting that it “supports the government to introduce amendments to the Legal Practitioners Ordinance as soon as possible”.
The committee’s statement said the move was to “handle the matter concerning the participation of overseas lawyers who are not qualified to practice generally in Hong Kong in cases involving national security issues”.
The committee, headed by Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu, and with Luo Huining, the director of Beijing’s liaison office in Hong Kong, as an adviser, also said it would “fully fulfil the obligations” of following up on the work set out in the interpretation of the national security law last month by China’s top legislative body, the National People’s Congress (NPC) Standing Committee.
Lai’s trial was set for last month but adjourned to September after Lee asked for Beijing’s interpretation of the national security law in the wake of a failed legal bid at the Court of Final Appeal to ban London-based barrister Owen from representing Lai.
It was the first time Beijing had interpreted the security legislation since it was imposed on Hong Kong in June 2020.