The Criminal Prosecutions Division of the Department of Justice today (21st) sent a letter to all briefed-out counsel, asking them to sign a document promising to abide by the confidentiality agreement when handling external cases.
The letter also requires the external barrister to promise to maintain national security and not to engage in acts or activities that endanger national security.
The Department of Justice responded that outsourced prosecutors, like prosecutors, must perform their duties in an impartial and professional manner and must not be influenced by political positions.
If the performance of outsourced lawyers violates professional performance, the Department of Justice will deal with it in accordance with relevant mechanisms.
The Criminal Prosecutions Division of the Department of Justice stated in the letter that in order to ensure the professional performance of statutory lawyers, all external barristers must comply with certain conditions, including ensuring that the cases assigned to follow up do not have conflicts of interest with them, and complying with the Hong Kong National Security Law. "Article 6, that is, "Any institution, organization and individual in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region shall abide by this law and other laws of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region on maintaining national security, and shall not engage in acts and activities that endanger national security."
In addition, the letter stated that as the government's external counsel, all instructions, information, documents and other items to be informed are required to be strictly confidential and should never be disclosed to anyone without the prior written consent of the Secretary for Justice or his representative .
The legal representative shall keep confidential the information learned during the practice process, including the information of institutions, organizations and individuals related to the case.
The letter mentions that outside counsel must comply with the Official Secrets Ordinance (Cap. 521), which protects certain categories of confidential information, documents or other items from disclosure.
Any person providing services to the HKSAR government who discloses or otherwise deals with classified information, documents or other items is in breach of the Official Secrets Ordinance.
The Department of Justice requires the relevant external barristers to sign a letter on or before December 5, promising not to disclose the information of the relevant case to anyone without prior written notice when handling the external case of the Department of Justice.
Department of Justice: Outsourced prosecutors must not be influenced by political stance
The Department of Justice stated that outsourced prosecutors, like prosecutors, must perform their duties in an impartial and professional manner and must not be influenced by political positions.
In order to ensure the professionalism of outsourced prosecutors, the Department of Justice has successively issued letters to remind outsourced prosecutors, reiterating that they, like prosecutors, must, as always, avoid conflicts of interest, keep case information confidential and abide by the provisions of the Hong Kong National Security Law , and asked them to make a clear promise in this regard.
The spokesman pointed out that the Department of Justice has established mechanisms to monitor and evaluate the performance of outsourced lawyers. If the performance of outsourced lawyers violates professional performance, the Department of Justice will deal with it in accordance with the relevant mechanism.
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