NATIONAL SECURITY LAW : Hong Kong court delays trial of pro-democracy tycoon
Jailed pro-democracy media mogul Jimmy Lai’s trial beneathneath Hong Kong’snational security law become behind schedule Thursday because the authorities requested Beijing to bar Lai from being represented with the aid of using a British legal professional.
Lai and numerous executives from the now-shuttered Apple Daily newspaper are being prosecuted for “colluding with overseas forces”, an offence beneathneath the law imposed at the metropolis after large and every now and then violent protests in 2019.
After neighborhood courts stated London-primarily based totally legal professional Tim Owen ought to constitute Lai, Hong Kong’s chief requested China’s pinnacle lawmaking frame to determine whether or not foreign places attorneys ought to take part in country wide protection instances.
The trial become set to begin Thursday however become adjourned to December 13 for prosecutors to provide you with a brand new timetable, pending any circulate from Beijing.
Defence attorneys additionally discovered that Hong Kong immigration government had “withheld the extension” of Owen’s current work visa with out disclosing a reason.
Owen had already been granted a visa as he become operating on any other Hong Kong case, the defence stated, however did now no longer specify whilst the visa will expire.
AFP has contacted the Immigration Department for comment.
Lawyers from not unusualplace law jurisdictions are capable of work inside Hong Kong’s criminal system, mainly in instances wherein their unique know-how can be required.
Owen is a king’s counsel — a senior trial legal professional in Britain — and has formerly labored on high-profile crook instances withinside the economic hub.
The authorities in advance argued in courtroom docket that letting foreign places attorneys work on country wide protection instances posed a risk, as there has been no manner to make certain the confidentiality of nation secrets.
When the Court of Final Appeal sided in opposition to the authorities on Monday, metropolis chief Lee stated he might ask Beijing to intrude with the aid of using issuing an “interpretation” of thenational security law.
This become the primary time Hong Kong invoked the mechanism beneathneath the law that lets in Beijing to have the very last say on the way it operates.
Lai, 74, is one in all Hong Kong’s best-acknowledged pro-democracy activists. He faces as much as existence in jail if convicted.
He is already in prison for playing an unlawful protest.
For years, his Apple Daily tabloid newspaper become scathing in its grievance of China’s Communist Party and overtly supportive of democracy.
It collapsed remaining yr after its finances have been frozen beneathneath the safety law and a lot of its senior body of workers have been charged along Lai, on the whole for his or her campaigning for global sanctions in opposition to China.
