Extradition Bill

jul20

Hong Kong’s Chief Executive Carrie Lam eventually withdrew these proposed amendments to the extradition law in the face of the huge and sometimes violent protests. But now, under the new national security law, if the Chinese authorities decide to try a security case in China rather than Hong Kong, the suspects will presumably be extradited automatically to China.  

The defenders of the new law point out, however, that, Article 50 of the law states that the Office for Safeguarding National Security “shall perform its mandate in strict compliance with the law and be subject to supervision in accordance with the law. It shall not infringe upon the lawf It shall not infringe upon the lawful rights and interests of any individual or organisation. https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2020-07-13-hong-kongs-new-security-law-ends-one-country-two-systems-philosophy-and-judicial-independence/#gsc.tab=0ul rights and interests of any individual or organisation.

The Fugitive Offenders and Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Legislation (Amendment) Bill 2019 (Chinese: 2019年逃犯及刑事事宜相互法律協助法例（修訂）條例草案) was a proposed bill regarding extradition to amend the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance (Cap. 503) in relation to special surrender arrangements and the Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Ordinance (Cap. 525) so that arrangements for mutual legal assistance can be made between Hong Kong and any place outside Hong Kong.^[2] The bill was proposed by the Hong Kong government in February 2019 to establish a mechanism for transfers of fugitives not only for Taiwan, but also for Mainland China and Macau, which are currently excluded in the existing laws.^[3]

The introduction of the bill caused widespread criticism domestically and abroad from the legal profession, journalist organisations, business groups, and foreign governments fearing the erosion of Hong Kong's legal system and its built-in safeguards, as well as damage to Hong Kong's business climate. Largely, this fear is attributed to China's newfound ability through this bill to arrest voices of political dissent in Hong Kong. There have been multiple protests against the bill in Hong Kong and other cities abroad. On 9 June, protesters estimated to number from hundreds of thousands to more than a million marched in the streets and called for Chief Executive Carrie Lam to step down.^[4][5] On 15 June, Lam announced she would 'suspend' the proposed bill.^[6] Ongoing protests called for a complete withdrawal of the bill and subsequently the implementation of universal suffrage, which is promised in the Basic Law. On 4 September, after 13 weeks of protests, Lam officially promised to withdraw the bill upon the resumption of the legislative session from its summer recess.^[7][8] On 23 October, Secretary for Security John Lee announced the government's formal withdrawal of the bill.^[9][10  In early 2018, 19-year-old Hong Kong resident Chan Tong-kai murdered his pregnant girlfriend Poon Hiu-wing in Taiwan, then returned to Hong Kong. Chan admitted to Hong Kong police that he killed Poon, but the police were unable to charge him for murder or extradite him to Taiwan because no agreement is in place.^[12] The two ordinances in Hong Kong, the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance and Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Ordinance, were not applicable to the requests for surrender of fugitive offenders and mutual legal assistance between Hong Kong and Taiwan.^[12][13] The pro-Beijing flagship party Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB) chairwoman Starry Lee and legislator Holden Chow pushed for a change to the extradition law in 2019 using the murder case as rationale.^[11] In February 2019, the government proposed changes to fugitive laws, establishing a mechanism for case-by-case transfers of fugitives by the Hong Kong Chief Executive to any jurisdiction with which the city lacks a formal extradition treaty, which it claimed would close the "legal loophole".^[14] Chen Zhimin, Zhang Xiaoming, and Han Zheng of the PRC publicly supported the change and stated that 300 fugitives were living in Hong Kong.^[11] Beijing's involvement in the proposed bill caused great concerns in Hong Kong.^[15]

Opposition expressed fears that the city would open itself up to the long arm of mainland Chinese law, putting people from Hong Kong at risk of falling victim to a different legal system. It therefore urged the government to establish an extradition arrangement with Taiwan only, and to sunset the arrangement immediately after the surrender of Chan Tong-kai.^[14][17]

Business community[edit]

The business community also raised concerns over the mainland's court system. The Liberal Party and the Business and Professionals Alliance for Hong Kong (BPA), the two pro-business parties, suggested 15 economic crimes being exempted from the 46 offences covered by the extradition proposal.^[18] The American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong (AmCham) pointed out that the mainland's "criminal process is plagued by deep flaws, including lack of an independent judiciary, arbitrary detention, lack of fair public trial, lack of access to legal representation and poor prison conditions"

On 30 May, Secretary for Security John Lee rolled out six new measures to limit the scope of extraditable crimes and raise the bar to those punishable by the sentence of three years to seven years or above—a key demand from the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce (HKGCC). Only requests from top judicial bodies of a requesting jurisdiction, namely the Supreme People's Procuratorate and Supreme People's Court in Mainland China, may be considered. Lee's announcement came hours after a group of 39 pro-Beijing legislators called for the bill to be amended. Their two demands—raising the threshold on extraditable crimes and allowing only extradition requests from the mainland's top authority—were both accepted by the government.^[57]

The government promulgated on 30 May the provision of "additional safeguards" in the following three aspects:^[58]

Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Human Rights Monitor and more than 70 other non-governmental organisations wrote an open letter to Chief Executive Carrie Lam on 7 June stating the "serious shortcomings in the proposed amendment", claiming that the additional safeguards would still be unlikely to provide genuine and effective protection as it did not resolve the real risk of torture or other ill-treatment, including detention in poor conditions for indefinite periods, or other serious human rights violations which are prohibited under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.^[63]

While reports suggested it had been the largest ever,^[68] certainly the largest protest Hong Kong has seen since the 1997 handover, surpassing the turnout seen at mass rallies in support of the Tiananmen protests of 1989 and 1 July demonstration of 2003,^[69] CHRF convenor Jimmy Sham said that 1.03 million people attended the march, while the police put the crowd at 270,000 at its peak.^{[69][70][71][72]}

Hundreds of protesters camped in front of the government headquarters well into the night, with more joining them in response to calls from Demosistō and pro-independence activists. Police formed a human chain to prevent protesters from entering Harcourt Road, the main road next to government headquarters, while Special Tactical Squad (STS) stood by for potential conflicts.^[73] Although the CHRF officially had called an end to the march at 10 pm, around 100 protesters remained at the Civic Square.^[74]

On 9 July, Carrie Lam said the controversial bill "is dead", but still refused to meet the protesters' demand to withdraw it.^{[98][99][100]} The protesters continued to demand full withdrawal of the bill, among other demands regarding alleged police misconducts and universal suffrage. The confrontations between the protesters and the police had since escalated. On 21 July, the police is accused of colluding with a gang who indiscriminately attacked passengers at Yuen Long station.^[101] A poll conducted in August showed that more than 90% of supporters of the protests expressed dissatisfaction with police misconduct, and, among their five core demands, the primary demand had shifted from the withdrawal of the bill to the establishment of independent commission of inquiry.^[102]

On 4 September, Carrie Lam announced that the government would officially withdraw the bill in October.^[7] However, she dismissed the other four core demands from the protesters.^[103]

The bill was formally withdrawn on 23 October.^[9][10] Chan Tong-kai was released from prison on the same day.^[104]

Widespread protests are still occurring.

^WKP