NPC interpretation 'looms if Lai is allowed king's counsel'

China's top legislative body would need to interpret the national security law if the admission of overseas lawyers is allowed in such trials, says the SAR's sole delegate to the National People's Congress standing committee, Tam Yiu-chung.

The court of final appeal is set to hand down a judgment today on whether to allow imprisoned media mogul Jimmy Lai Chee-ying to hire king's counsel Tim Owen as his lawyer for his collusion trial to begin on Thursday.

Tam said that since such cases involve national secrets and issues of foreign forces, it would be inappropriate for overseas counsels to be allowed in the case.

Allowing foreign lawyers into national security-related trials would go against the standing committee's original purpose of the legislation, he said.

"If the situation remains unchanged, there is no other way but for the NPC standing committee to interpret the law and make adjustments regarding the issue," he said.

"When the legislation has been misunderstood or misinterpreted, it has the responsibility to explain the original purpose of the legislation."

Tam said the law was in Chinese, whereas the English version was just for reference.

"It is impossible to allow foreign lawyers who don't know Chinese to be involved in national security-related laws when we need to have designated judges to handle these cases," Tam said.

Executive Council member Ronny Tong Ka-wah, a senior counsel, dismissed concerns about any such admission, saying the mechanism is protected by the Basic Law and has been effective for years.

"If a judge considers the information is confidential and should be disclosed to anyone, this means the information cannot be presented as evidence in trials," he said, adding people should be confident about the legal system, especially judges.

But he said in the long term, the level of involvement of overseas counsels should be reduced, including in national security law cases, to train more local legal talent.

Exco convener Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee echoed Tam's comments, saying the legal challenge has turned into a constitutional question.

Writing on Facebook, she quoted a former secretary for justice, Rimsky Yuen Kwok-keung, as saying the law is drafted by the NPC standing committee and should be part of continental law - where it is inappropriate to admit overseas lawyers.

"No matter how specialized Owen is in common and criminal law, they are different from national security law, plus he is not Chinese and won't understand the importance of safeguarding national security," Ip said.

Lai, the 74-year-old founder of the now-defunct Apple Daily, is facing a 30-day trial on his three charges - two counts of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces and one of collusion with foreign forces.