Hong Kong’s secretary for justice, whose watch was marked by instances of perceived interference by China in the territory’s rule of law, yesterday stepped down, more than four years before the end of his term.
An independent legal system sits at the core of the wide-ranging autonomy promised after Britain handed its former colony back to China in 1997 under a “one country, two systems” formula that guarantees it freedoms not enjoyed on the mainland.
Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam (林鄭月娥) said secretary for justice Rimsky Yuen (袁國強) had resigned for personal reasons, after starting his second five-year term in July last year.
“He has been a pillar of strength in upholding the rule of law in Hong Kong,” Lam said.
However, Yuen’s time in office was punctuated by several controversies, including two rare protests by hundreds of lawyers.
Yuen, 53, was one of the key officials tasked with promoting a contentious political reform package in 2014, which later helped trigger the months-long “Umbrella movement” street protests demanding, in vain, full democracy for the territory.
He was targeted by demonstrators after reports last year that he had overruled several senior public prosecutors to seek jail terms for three democrats involved in those protests, including Joshua Wong (黃之鋒), the bespectacled young activist who became the public face of the demonstrations.
He was also criticized for pushing through an immigration arrangement that would allow Chinese officials to implement mainland laws inside a downtown high-speed rail station.
Yuen and Chinese Communist Party officials in Beijing argued that parts of the station would be legally regarded as “mainland Chinese territory,” so the territory’s mini-constitution, the Basic Law, which explicitly says national laws do not apply in Hong Kong, would not be applicable.
The Hong Kong Bar Association called Beijing’s move “the most retrograde step to date in the implementation of the Basic Law.”
On each occasion, “the ultimate decision was made in accordance with the law,” Yuen said on Friday last week, even though some people might not like the results.
Yuen also reportedly tried to dissuade Beijing from interfering in a case against pro-independence lawmakers last year and spoke openly about how “matters that can be properly handled within Hong Kong’s legal or judicial system should be left to be dealt with at the Hong Kong level as much as possible.”
The Chinese National People’s Congress ultimately issued an interpretation of the law, pre-empting the judge’s decision, effectively barring the lawmakers from their posts.
That prompted 2,000 lawyers to march in protest against what they said was the most blatant interference in the territory’s judicial independence.
Incoming Hong Kong Secretary for Justice Teresa Cheng (鄭若驊), 59, said her “prime mission” would be to uphold the rule of law and that she would pursue criminal prosecutions “without any interference.”
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