AFP reports that the first trial under new anti-terrorism laws is to take place in Hong Kong. The majority of the 14 defendants face up to life imprisonment…
Members of the radical protest group known as “Dragon Slayers” were rounded up after a long investigation into an alleged bomb plot that was to be put into action during an International Human Rights Day rally on December 10, 2019.
…The “Dragon Slayers” would ransack shops to attract authorities while then-18-year-old member David Su would push officers in closer proximity to the bombs, the prosecution said.
“The group planned to take the police guns for their own use after the officers were killed,” [prosecutor Edward] Lau said.
…Other than the woman admitted late in the trial, all of the accused have been kept behind bars for more than 1,000 days.
Will they be getting the Jimmy Lai treatment? Vid of the road closures and police escort for his trip back from court to jail.
In case you missed it: the PRC – a nuclear power with the world’s largest navy – narrowly escapes the threat posed by a 78-year-old with terminal cancer, who gets nine months in prison for ‘carrying the purpose of overthrowing Beijing’ via a plan to protest with a home-made cardboard coffin.
And the trial of HK Alliance members accused of planning to ‘subvert state power’ (hold a Tiananmen vigil) will not start until November at the earliest.
Which brings us to a Nikkei report on Hong Kong’s shortage of judges…
Three out of six potential High Court judges put forward by the Judicial Officers Recommendation Commission (JORC) in its last round of suggestions in 2021 were never appointed by the city’s leader. One candidate pulled out of the process due to concerns over sweeping changes in the legal landscape made by the national security law that Beijing imposed in mid-2020, while another failed to pass a background check…
…Amid the shortfall of appointments, national security cases like Lai’s have been pushed back repeatedly and a record number of defendants are behind bars awaiting trial.
Only 161 of 211 positions within the judiciary are filled, with the highest ratio — 36% — of vacancies at the High Court judge level…
…Withdrawing an application by a nominee is unheard of, according to legal professionals, due to the rigorous and lengthy interview process. However, senior lawyers who spoke to Nikkei Asia on condition of anonymity said the ripple effects of the security law have made the position of a judge less appealing.
Since the enactment of the law, judges must pledge to uphold national security and to protect the “overall interests” of Hong Kong. The oath also spells out that “any acts that undermine the order of the political structure led by the chief executive” are a violation.
…Melissa Pang, the former president of the law society, told a closed-door panel in November that the U.S. [sanctions] bill would make it even more difficult for the judiciary to attract talent, according to lawyers who attended. Judges in Hong Kong are unable to return to private practice once they resign.
Experts say the prestige that once came with being a judge has been overshadowed by the security law. “Who would want to put themselves out there and risk their reputation?” another senior lawyer said.
This has left cases piling up and defendants stuck in jail. The chief justice said in 2022 that a ruling must be handed down up to nine months after the conclusion of a hearing. Hong Kong had 3,304 people in remand as of September 2023, according to the Correctional Services Department. Put another way, over one-third of people in prison were defendants.
“Hong Kong had 3,304 people in remand as of September 2023, according to the Correctional Services Department. Put another way, over one-third of people in prison were defendants.”
Seems like a great opportunity for some son or great grandson of a patriotic, old family HK “tycoon” to start up a for-profit, prison industrial complex business with available listed shares, etc in the U.S. model of prisons. Definitely a potential filled growth industry!
Mo man tai, just add judges to the Top Talent Pass Scheme……………….
Great related video here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7GrnP2XzLw&ab_channel=CyrusJanssen
I have been sending it out to overseas friends and acquaintances. Rather than me spending time addressing silly/naive or even infuriating questions, this effort covers just about all of the bases.
Junius Ho must be a good candidate…
Sarcophagus#4
YYYaaaaaawwwwnnnnnnn
……..ZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzz….
………Snore…..
………prrrt….!
@Reactor #4: Ah yes, Cyrus Janssen – CCP apologist who tells his “good China” and “bad West” stories on each social media channel available.
Wannabe golf pro that got some gigs in expensive Chinese golf clubs where, I guess, he gathered his deep insights into China and its people.
And as most of these guys he prefers to live in Canada and not in the country he praises so much.
Try better next time………….
Cyrus Janssen’s CCP-tanky take on the protests ‘covers just about all the bases’ in the same sad, desperate but unconvincing way his haircut covers his baldness.
50¢ all round.
“I have been sending it out to overseas friends and acquaintances.”
They have my sympathies. But, I guess they know where the “mark as spam’ button is….
@Mary Melville – I wish you were joking, but…
I know for a fact that Simon #4 Asshole does not have any “local friends”, so it is really interesting to know that he has “overseas friends” (wishful thinking slash boasting).
Tankies are tiresome fools, both because they’re ignorant and because they tend to drone on forever.
Reactionary #4 isn’t a tankie precisely–he reminds me of the main character in the great early 60s Cuban film “Memories of Underdevelopment.” Sergio is a fundamentally lazy bourgeois aspiring writer who stays in Cuba during the revolution while his wife and friends have moved to the US. He never actually writes anything, and witnesses the upheaval but doesn’t support either Fidel or the regime the revolutionaries are fighting. Sergio just wants to get laid and eat nice food. By the end of the film, our man is adrift and alone and alienated in a new world he has abstained from participating in.
@Seve.
The Sergio character you précis reminds me of many of those who congregate here. They can’t be 4rsed to leave the city, and are here for the ‘company’ and the food (the money, the low taxes, and the benign winters also help). They claim to despise the ‘regime’, but their only resistance to it is to check-in to this column a 2-3 times a week, occasionally posting a comment.
I suspect many who comment here are, like the millions who marched peacefully in 2019 and who voted for pro-democracy candidates in that year’s elections, are ‘stuck’ due to family, business and other commitments.
It is ironic but not surprising that someone who supports an oppressive NSL regime and its kangaroo courts should then mock others for not wishing to fall foul of said regime.
Still, I imagine we all will be gone one day, leaving the corpse of this once great city to the ‘patriots’ and a handful of foreign lickspittles. And of course to the Mainland Chinese who use Hong Kong as a jumping off point for escaping the Glorious People’s Republic. Best of luck to them.
BTW, I will be interested to learn the details of this ‘Dragon Slayers’ case as they emerge….