HK rule of law ‘profoundly compromised’, says judge
LONDON/HONG KONG: The rule of law in Hong Kong is profoundly compromised in areas where the government has strong opinions, a British judge who resigned last week from the top Hong Kong appeals court said yesterday.
Jonathan Sumption is one of two British judges who resigned shortly after a landmark verdict in which 14 prominent democratic activists were convicted for subversion amid a national security crackdown on dissent.
Some lawyers say the resignations challenge the assumption, long held by some legal professionals, that having foreign jurists on the top court helps protect the city’s international image after China imposed a national security law on Hong Kong in 2020 in response to mass pro-democracy protests.
Explaining his eventual decision to resign, Mr Sumption said Hong Kong authorities were paranoid about political dissent.
“Hong Kong, once a vibrant and politically diverse community, is slowly becoming a totalitarian state. The rule of law is profoundly compromised in any area about which the government feels strongly,” he wrote in an editorial published on the Financial Times website.
Mr Sumption told the BBC yesterday that the 14 convictions were “the last straw”, and a “major indication of the lengths to which some judges are prepared to go to ensure Beijing’s campaign against those who have supported democracy succeeds”.
He said that some judges quit on their own, but that the current president and deputy president of the United Kingdom’s Supreme Court, who resigned from Hong Kong’s judiciary in 2022, did so “under pressure from the UK government”.
Hong Kong’s chief judge Andrew Cheung thanked Mr Sumption for his past work in a statement, while noting that “a tension often exists between protection of fundamental rights and safeguarding national security, both of which the Hong Kong Judiciary is firmly committed to doing.”
Hong Kong’s leader John Lee disagreed with Mr Sumption’s comments and said judges did not have expertise in political matters. He also accused Britain and other countries of attempting to interfere in Hong Kong’s legal affairs.
While some departing foreign judges have voiced concerns at Hong Kong’s tightened security laws, none has gone as far as Mr Sumption.