Bangkok Post – Jimmy Lai’s son says foreign judges should leave the Hong Kong bench

The son of former media tycoon Jimmy Lai has called on all foreign judges to leave Hong Kong’s legal system, putting pressure on them to join an exodus that threatens to undermine a key distinction that distinguishes the city from mainland China.

Sebastian Lai made the comments on Monday at the National Press Club in the Australian capital of Canberra as part of a campaign by him and his legal team to rally support for his imprisoned father.

“By staying, you’re basically saying that there’s still a sham of rule of law in this place that’s trapping pro-democracy protesters,” Lai said. “And that’s not true, that’s not true at all.”

The appointment of foreign judges to Hong Kong’s highest court has long been seen as a source of confidence in the independence of the judiciary since it returned to Chinese rule. But about half of them resigned from a 2019 summit after Beijing introduced a national security law that has been used to silence dissent.

Lai has called on the Australian government to join an international campaign to pressure Beijing to release his father, who is serving prison sentences for a range of offences related to his pro-democracy activities in Hong Kong. Canberra has expressed concern over Lai’s case, while the United States, Britain and the European Union have directly called for his release.

Lai and six former lawmakers are currently appealing their convictions for joining an illegal protest in August 2019, and the case is being heard by Hong Kong’s Court of Final Appeal. A part-time judge from Britain, former Chief Justice David Neuberger, is among five judges hearing the case.

Lai, 76, faces separate, more serious charges under the national security law, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison. He is accused of conspiring to collude with foreign forces to impose sanctions on Chinese and Hong Kong officials.

Asked about the presence of retired British and Australian judges in the Hong Kong court, Lai said the growing number of political prisoners in the city showed that foreign lawyers were doing nothing to protect citizens from “oppression”.

Of the 15 judges in 2019, only seven of the city’s highest court’s judges are foreign, with four from Australia and the rest from the UK.

Hong Kong’s political freedoms have been steadily restricted after Beijing introduced a sweeping national security law in 2020, triggered by large pro-democracy protests in the city last year.

In recent months, a number of foreign judges have resigned from the Court of Appeal, with one saying that Hong Kong is “slowly becoming a totalitarian state.” Hong Kong’s government has denied putting any political pressure on the courts, saying it has always respected their independent judicial authority.

In a conversation with Lai’s son on Monday, his lawyer Caoilfhionn Gallagher said her team was “deeply concerned” about the former publisher’s health, adding that it had not yet been decided whether Lai would testify in his defense in the national security trial, which will be resumes at the end of this month.