What’s known as a shot across the bows and a clear warning that overseas lawyers involved in national security cases will be scrutinized more so than others.
Essentially this is just a mechanism for making sure that defence that looks too robust is dealth with under the aegis of immigration law.
SCMP
- Deputy minister Horace Cheung’s remarks come after Secretary for Justice Paul Lam hinted lawyers could be barred even though a proposal does not apply to them
- Proposed legal amendments could give Hong Kong’s leader the final say on the role of overseas counsel in national security cases
Hong Kong’s deputy justice minister has highlighted the need for foreign lawyers previously hired for national security cases to comply with the city’s immigration laws even if a proposed vetting mechanism did not apply to them.
Deputy Secretary of Justice Horace Cheung Kwok-kwan comments on Sunday came after Secretary for Justice Paul Lam Ting-kwok earlier said the proposed legal amendment giving Hong Kong’s leader the final say on the role of foreign lawyers in national security cases would not be retrospective.
But Lam hinted that previous applications for foreign lawyers to be involved in national security cases could still be barred as there would be “other ways” to handle them, without specifying how this would be achieved or whether he was referring to jailed media tycoon Jimmy Lai Chee-ying’s attempt to hire British barrister Timothy Owen.
