Mainland trial 'an option for security law cases'

Hongkongers who breach the national security law may be transferred to the mainland to stand trial, says National People's Congress Standing Committee member Tam Yiu-chung.

His comments came as the SAR recovers from last year's anti-fugitive bill movement, ignited by fears Hongkongers could be tried in the mainland.

But Tam said sending Hongkongers to the mainland to stand trial for breaching the national security law is still on the table.

"If the central government thinks it is necessary, where some cases should not be handled in Hong Kong courts, then that is an option," Tam said.

"But it depends on how the central government will exercise its jurisdiction."

The deputy director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, Deng Zhonghua, said on Monday that Beijing will have jurisdiction over "serious" national security cases once the law is passed.

Tam said he believes that some prosecution cases concerning foreign interference or cases involving diplomatic issues could be handled by the central government.

Pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong Chi-fung said Tam's comments "mark the end" of one country, two systems, adding that Beijing is now bypassing the fugitive bill.

"It's just the stepping stone for more interference from Beijing. Through the same top-down mechanism, Beijing can impose its cybersecurity law, censorship regimes and social credit system on Hong Kong," Wong said.

While the NPCSC is set to meet today, the law has not been included on the agenda, though Xinhua News Agency reported that Beijing will speed up the legislation process for Hong Kong.

Meanwhile, 86 rights groups from around the world have issued a joint open letter to the NPCSC, urging it to drop plans to impose the law.

The signatories include Amnesty International, Progressive Lawyers Group, Human Rights Watch and other groups from Australia, the United States, Norway and elsewhere.

In the letter addressed to NPCSC chairman Li Zhanshu, the 86 signatories said the law's "vague" articles, including the prohibition of "acts of secession, subversion, terrorism," could be used against people "peacefully exercising and defending their human rights."

The signatories said Beijing's law conceptualized the term "national security" in a broad manner that could mean "peaceful activists, human rights lawyers, scholars, ethnic minorities, journalists and netizens are detained, charged, and imprisoned for years - sometimes for life - for vaguely defined crimes."

They said the law's expected prohibition on "foreign intervention" is another vague term, as it is applicable to any party perceived to be interacting with those outside Hong Kong.

The letter also slammed the NPCSC's decision to include the law into Annex III of the Basic Law through promulgation, saying it could violate Article 23 of the Basic Law - which says the SAR government must enact a national security law on its own.