No jury as Hong Kong's first 'national security' trial gets under way
23 June, 2021
The first trial under Hong Kong's new national security law commences on Wednesday (Jun 23) with out a jury, a landmark moment for the financial hub's fast-changing legal traditions.
Tong Ying-kit, 24, was arrested beneath the new law your day after it arrived to effect when he allegedly drove his motorbike right into a group of cops during protests on Jul 1 this past year.
Footage showed his motorbike was flying a flag that read "Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times", a popular protest slogan now deemed illegal under the security law.
Tong faces charges of inciting secession and terrorism, in addition to an alternative solution charge of dangerous driving.
Two courts rejected Tong's plea to have his case heard by a jury, which his legal team had argued was a constitutional right considering that he faces a life sentence if convicted.
Trial by jury has been a cornerstone of Hong Kong's 176-year-old common law system and is described by the city's judiciary on its website among the legal system's "most significant features".
However the national security law, that was penned in Beijing and imposed on Hong Kong this past year after huge and frequently violent democracy protests, allows for cases to be tried by three exclusively selected judges.
The city's justice secretary invoked the no jury clause for Tong's trial arguing that juror safety could possibly be compromised in Hong Kong's febrile political landscape, a decision first revealed by AFP.
Tong's legal team has yet to choose whether to bring their case to Hong Kong's Court of Final Appeal.
However, the wording of Beijing's security law makes clear that it trumps any local regulations in the event of a dispute, something successive court rulings have already upheld.
Tong's case is unusual because he's the only Hong Konger up to now charged beneath the security law with an explicitly violent act.
More than 60 persons have been charged under the provision, including a number of the city's best-known democracy activists, but their offences are related to political views or speech that authorities have declared illegal.
Hong Kong and Chinese authorities have hailed the security law as successfully restoring stability following the demonstrations that convulsed the finance hub in 2019.
But it has also transformed the city's political and legal landscape - that was historically firewalled from the authoritarian mainland.
Regulations also grants China jurisdiction over some cases and empowers mainland security agents to use openly in the semi-autonomous city for the very first time.
Critics, including many western nations, say China has broken its "One country, two systems" promise that Hong Kong could maintain key freedoms after its handover from Britain.
Source:
TAG(s):