Beijing lashes out at UK judge who stepped down from Hong Kong’s top court
- Jonathan Sumption is ‘disgrace to the legal profession’, commentary published on WeChat account of Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office says
Beijing has hit out at a British judge who stepped down from Hong Kong’s top court and was critical of the rule of law situation in the city, calling him a “disgrace to the legal profession” for “utterly abandoning professionalism and ethics”.
The commentary was posted on the WeChat account of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office on Wednesday under the pen name of “Gang Ao Ping”.
It came two days after Jonathan Sumption said in an op-ed piece in the Financial Times that the rule of law in Hong Kong had been “profoundly compromised” and judges in the city had to “operate in an impossible political environment created by China”.
Sumption, 75, and British judge Lawrence Collins, 83, announced their resignations from the Court of Final Appeal last Thursday, with the latter also citing the “political situation” in Hong Kong as the reason for his departure.
“Speaking the truth based on facts and the law is the fundamental principle of a judge,” the commentary on WeChat read.
“However, the various negative comments made by Sumption in his article about the rule of law in Hong Kong are completely baseless and lack any factual or legal foundation.”
