Legal stakes raised to incredible high

The stakes have been raised to an incredibly high level after Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu said he was asking the National People's Congress Standing Committee to interpret the law in respect of the hiring of overseas lawyers in National Security Law cases.

Apple Daily founder Jimmy Lai Chee-ying's court victory was incredibly short-lived.

He is facing several counts of collusion and conspiracy to collude with foreign forces - charges under the National Security Law. The Court of Final Appeal cleared what appeared to be the final local hurdle for him to hire King's Counsel Tim Owen from Britain as his defense lawyer in a trial that could lead to a life sentence.

The government has repeatedly sought to bar Lai from getting help from an overseas lawyer.

In refusing the government's application for leave to raise its case in an appeal to Hong Kong's top court, the panel of three judges did little except uphold a well-established legal tradition in common-law practice that an appellant is not expected to raise new issues that have not been mentioned or explored in the courts below.

The CFA rejected the leave application because the justice secretary "fundamentally changed" his case only at the stage of seeking leave to appeal and "raised undefined and unsubstantiated issues" that had not been mentioned or explored in the lower courts.

In this sense, the CFA judges did their best to protect the common-law tradition in handling the appeal in accordance with established legal principles that are crucial to maintaining public and overseas confidence in the local legal system.

Despite the CFA's clearance, the chief executive's intervention with a law interpretation request to Beijing is casting a shadow on the upcoming trial, which is scheduled to start on Thursday and is expected to last about 30 days.

There are now doubts about whether or not the trial will begin as planned.

Before the CFA handed down the judgment, NPC Standing Committee member Tam Yiu-chung said the standing committee may need to interpret the law. This was a serious warning before the court could finish the due process.

Tam's warning and the chief executive's swift statement that he is requesting law interpretation from the mainland's top legislative body are raising the stakes to an incredibly high level.

As they spoke, they were also aware that the outcome of the law interpretation by Beijing is all but a foregone conclusion.

Even though the CFA played its role properly - according to sound legal principles rather than politics - any further law interpretation by the NPC Standing Committee is bound to deal the local judicial system a heavy blow.

As soon as Tam warned that Beijing may intervene should the CFA rule against the government's objection to Lai hiring a British lawyer to defend him in the landmark trial, the local legal profession has been monitoring the situation closely.

Their keen interest in the development over an accused person's rights to choose a defense lawyer of his or her preference is well founded.

They know the implications are far-reaching and that the stakes are tremendously high.