Hong Kong’s judiciary condemns call by US panel for sanctions on 29 judges who hear national security cases
- Report by US Congressional-Executive Commission on China singles out jurists tasked with hearing national security law cases, including city’s chief justice
- Judiciary says judges act on ‘basis of the law and evidence, and nothing else’
A judiciary spokesman on Friday said attempts to exert pressure on judges were unacceptable, hours after the US Congressional-Executive Commission on China published its report calling for the penalties.
“Their constitutional duty is to exercise their judicial power independently and professionally in every case, including cases relating to national security, strictly on the basis of the law and evidence, and nothing else,” he said.
The report, titled “One City, Two Legal Systems”, singled out the judges who hear national security cases. It claimed their involvement in such trials had weakened freedom and democracy in Hong Kong.
The security law had created a separate legal system in which the Hong Kong and central governments had “unchecked control over the weakened judiciary”, the advisory body said.
“Some analysts argue that the [national security] law established a de facto parallel legal system where procedural rights are curtailed and substantive rights violated.
