The Hong Kong version of the National Security Law 〡Yang Yueqiao: Jury is an important spirit of non-common law practice of grading sentence

Political situation

Written by Peng Zhuowei

2020-06-30 10:10

The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress closed for three days today (30th), and the news said that the draft of the "Hong Kong version of the National Security Law" was adopted by 162 votes. It is expected that the specific provisions will be officially announced later.

Yang Yueqiao, the leader of the Citizen Party, criticized that the relevant draft content has not been seen yet, which is extremely undesirable. Regarding news that the sentence for crimes will be graded according to severity, with minor crimes ranging from three to ten years in prison, and serious crimes can be sentenced to life imprisonment, Yang Yueqiao pointed out that this is not a common law practice in Hong Kong, which is equivalent to "crossing". Decreased the flexibility of judges handling cases.

The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress held a group meeting to review the "Hong Kong version of the National Security Law." Li Zhanshu, chairman of the National People's Congress (middle), participated. (Xinhua News Agency)

It is reported that when the court will deal with the relevant case in the future, a jury will generally be set up, but the Department of Justice can also apply to the court not to deal with the case, such as involving national security secrets or based on the personal safety of the jury. Establish a jury system. Yang Yueqiao believes that the jury system is an important spirit of the common law. At present, all cases tried in the high courts need a jury. They question why the jury should decide whether a jury should be established. As for the personal safety of the jury, he believes that there are currently relevant mechanisms to deal with it, including the requirement that the media cannot report their information.

According to the news, there will be no retrospective period for the draft, but Ye Guoqian, a representative of the People's Congress of the Minato District, said recently that if someone violates the regulations after the law comes into effect, the behavior before the law may become a reference for prosecution. Yang Yueqiao believes that the relevant practices are unjustified, emphasizing that pre-legislative behavior is equivalent to not breaking the law, and the common law does not have the concept of continuous crime.

As for the question of the jurisdiction of the central government in specific cases, Yang Yueqiao pointed out that Hong Kong has independent judicial power, questioning whether there are objective standards for the relevant practices, whether the defendant has an appeal mechanism to refuse in the future, and what criminal law is used in the trial in the Mainland.

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[Hong Kong version of the National Security Law] The National People's Congress Standing Committee passed the draft National Security Law with 162 votes

The United States Senate recently passed the "Hong Kong Autonomy Act", requesting the President to sanction those who the US believes to harm Hong Kong's autonomy. Yang Yueqiao said that any country has the right to pass its own internal bills and believes that "power leaders should ask themselves why these bills exist, but "I didn't have it before." When asked if he supported the relevant bill, Yang Yueqiao only said that he supports the Hong Kong government should do a good job in one country, two systems, and show the world that Hong Kong people can govern Hong Kong and have a high degree of autonomy.

Hong Kong version of the National Security Act Yangyue Bridge