BREAKING: Hong Kong leader to have power to certify any criminal case as national security

The Hong Kong government has proposed to the legislature that the chief executive have the power to certify any criminal case as a national security case, which has a binding effect on the courts.

New subsidiary legislation under Article 23 – Hong Kong’s homegrown national security ordinance will empower the city’s leader to define “other offences endangering national security under the law of the HKSAR,” according to a government proposal submitted to the Legislative Council (LegCo) on Monday morning.

The National Security Exhibition Gallery in the Museum of History in Hong Kong, on August 8, 2024. File photo: Hans Tse/HKFP.

The government proposed that the subsidiary legislation would be enacted through a “negative vetting” procedure, allowing it to be gazetted before being tabled at LegCo for scrutiny.

The “legislative intent” of the Beijing-imposed national security law, which came into effect on June 30, 2020, is that offences endangering national security include not only the four types of offences under the Beijing-imposed national security law but also “other offences endangering national security under the law of the HKSAR,” the government’s proposal said.

Under the proposal, the chief executive will be granted the power to certify that any act involved in a criminal offence case concerns national security.

If the chief executive issues a certificate, “then the case is a case concerning [an] offence endangering national security” under the Beijing-imposed national security law or Article 23,” it said.

“If a person is charged with any offence endangering national security, and is charged with or convicted of any alternative offence in respect of the same act in the same case, such alternative offence is also an offence endangering national security.”

Once a case or an offence is certified as endangering national security, the procedures stipulated in Article 23 or the national security law for handling such cases will be applicable.

The national security law allows handpicked judges and closed-door hearings for national security cases, trials without juries, and a higher bar for bail.

Hong Kong’s Legislative Council. File photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.

The Panel on Security and the Panel on Administration of Justice and Legal Services will hold a joint meeting later on Monday to discuss the proposed subsidiary legislation.

Ming Pao reported on Sunday that some lawmakers were notified that such a meeting would be held the following day.