Ronny Tong Rejects Fear Of Lawyers Being Targeted

Executive councillor Ronny Tong on Monday dismissed concerns that lawyers who represent dissidents could face national security charges, as has happened on the mainland, saying such worries stem from a lack of trust.

"It also demonstrates a profound blindness to facts since the people are not willing to look at the facts and not willing to look at common sense and look around and see what is happening in Hong Kong. Rather they tend to jump to conclusions by what they have read in the news about what happened on the mainland," Tong told an RTHK programme.

"We have been living under the One Country, Two Systems for 23 years now. People should at least begin to realise that things in Hong Kong are very different from things on the mainland,” the executive councillor added.

His comments came after one listener phoned in saying he was worried that lawyers who represent dissidents could face national security charges, citing the example of human rights lawyer Wang Quanzhang, who was jailed for subversion. Wang told an interview recently that he was subject to torture during detention and was forced to confess.

Tong, a senior counsel, also slammed some of his fellow lawyers who have said that the new national security law will undermine judicial independence, accusing them of jumping to conclusions and making comments without any basis on facts.

The Bar Association had expressed concerns over reports that the coming national security law will allow the Chief Executive to appoint judges to try such cases.

He said any serious criminal case would be handled at different stages by different magistrates or judges, so it’s impossible for the Chief Executive to be able to order any judges to convict a defendant.

He did not name any names, but Tong said he would expect professional practitioners to refrain from jumping to conclusions with "very extreme results without any evidence".

In response to Tong's comments, Democratic Party chairman Wu Chi-wai said it is difficult for people to have any confidence in the national security law, noting that mainland human rights lawyers like Wang had acted in accordance with the law when they represented activists in court, but were eventually jailed for subversion.

“If we look at the history of the mainland government, I myself [would] not have any confidence at all,” said Wu.

Kyodo news on Friday published an exclusive interview with Wang in which he said he was he was beaten and kicked during interrogations and forced into a confession by authorities.

Wang told the Japanese news agency that he was tortured while in jail, including being prohibited from rolling over while sleeping.

The report cited Wang as saying he was slapped in the face for hours, before being forced to admit he tried to subvert the government by receiving funds from abroad.

Wang said he was also told to stand for 15 hours with his hands up in the air, and when he dropped them, he was yelled at and called a "traitor”.”

In the interview, the lawyer said that a judiciary official said his jail term would be lengthened to eight years if he appealed against his four-and-a-half-year prison term.

"My cases prove that (China's judicial procedure) is sloppy. It is public safety police, prosecutors and court authorities that disrupt law," Kyodo quoted Wang as saying.

Wang completed his sentence in April.