Hong Kong national security law: court to rule within month whether to review decision to block overseas lawyer from defending Jimmy Lai
- High Court hears arguments from jailed media tycoon Jimmy Lai’s legal team as it seeks approval of two legal challenges
- National security committee should be subject to review for advising Immigration Department to ban King’s Counsel Timothy Owen, Lai’s legal team says
The High Court on Friday heard arguments by Lai’s legal team, which was seeking the approval of two legal challenges, including a judicial review, against the city’s government and the Committee for Safeguarding National Security.
Senior Counsel Robert Pang Yiu-hung said the committee should be subject to a judicial review by courts for overstepping its authority by advising the Immigration Department to bar King’s Counsel Timothy Owen from representing Lai.
Lai, the founder of the now-defunct Apple Daily newspaper, who faces charges of sedition and conspiracy to collude with foreign forces, has been fighting a legal battle to keep Owen on his defence team.
The court approved Owen’s participation in Lai’s case in October last year, a decision upheld by the Court of Appeal and the Court of Final Appeal.
But the National People’s Congress Standing Committee, the nation’s top legislative body, subsequently handed down the first interpretation of Hong Kong’s security law in December, ruling the decision to hire overseas lawyers should be left to the city’s leader and the national security law committee.
