Letters: Our law is not your law
[Re: British human rights lawyer flees Hong Kong after meeting with national security police, March 3]
The departure of veteran British human rights barrister and former chair of Hong Kong’s Bar Association, Paul Harris, following police questioning marks yet another dark day for human rights and the rule of law in Hong Kong.
It is all too clear that Harris’ steadfast defence of Hong Kong’s beleaguered democracy and his opposition to the draconian national security law provoked the ire of Beijing and made him a marked man.
His exit is also an unfortunate reminder that Britain’s main contribution to Hong Kong’s legal system continues to be the services of eight British judges who sit on Hong Kong’s highest bench, including the UK’s supreme court president, Lord Reed of Allermuir.
It is high time that British justices stopped lending Hong Kong’s thoroughly compromised and broken judiciary the legitimacy craved by the Chinese Communist Party to prop up its totalitarian rule in Hong Kong.
Lord Alton of Liverpool, Vice Chair of the APPG on Hong Kong