Ex-prosecutor calls out the groundless hostility of the West
Grenville Cross, a former director of public prosecutions for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, sharply criticized the United States and its allies in the Five Eyes intelligence alliance on Tuesday for their “hostile measures” against Hong Kong.
Addressing a forum hosted by the City University of Hong Kong, Cross accused the United States and its allies of taking various “hostile measures” after the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress enacted the National Security Law for the city on June 30.
The Western countries’ measures, unwarranted on a legal basis, may also undermine global efforts to uphold justice and the rule of law, Cross said.
T he US and its four allies in the Five Eyes alliance — the UK, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand — as well as several other European countries, including Finland and Germany, have announced multiple hostile measures against Hong Kong, including financial sanctions, travel alerts, and the suspension of agreements on the surrender of fugitive offenders, he said.
Cross warned that the damaging consequences of lacking extradition agreements include allowing criminals who are guilty of grave offenses to “enjoy their undeserved freedom” as long as they leave Hong Kong and fly to these “safe haven” countries, and vice versa.
Without such agreements, there are no legal mechanisms to bring such fugitives to justice, he said.
“This is a betrayal not only of the victims of crime and the lawabiding public, but also of the principles of global justice, which prioritize the holding of criminals to account,” Cross said.
The countries that suspend such agreements will harm their own interests since they will no longer hold accountable those who escape justice from their jurisdiction, said Cross. From 1997 to 2020, Hong Kong surrendered a total 95 fugitive offenders to the US and the UK, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand.
Previously, Hong Kong had extradition agreements with 20 countries, a low number that is “profoundly unsatisfactory” in Cross’ opinion. In 2019, an amendment to the extradition law that would have expanded Hong Kong’s ability to surrender criminal suspects to other countries and regions was withdrawn after four months of mass violence and protests.
Cross refuted these countries’ claims that they suspended the surrender of fugitive offenders to prevent people extradited to Hong Kong from being whisked off to Beijing for trial under Article 55 of the National Security Law.
He said that such a scenario is not possible because there is no overlap between the offenses referred to in the surrender of fugitives agreements and those referred to in the National Security Law.
The international extradition agreements cover criminal offenses such as murder, drug trafficking, fraud, corruption, kidnapping, sexual assault, and child pornography, while the National Security Law stipulates that a person can be tried at the national level only when public order has broken down, there is a major involvement of foreign forces, or if national security is imminently threatened.
In addition, each of these agreements signed with Hong Kong had clearly stipulated that no surrender request will be granted if there are any grounds for believing that a suspect will be prosecuted or punished because of his or her political opinions.
The pretexts the Western countries provided for canceling the extradition agreements were unfounded and untrue, and the measures are politically motivated, driven mainly by US hostility toward China, and Hong Kong has been caught in the crossfire, Cross said.
He also pointed to the antagonistic attitude in the tourism bulletins of those countries. Australia, for example, advised its people “not to visit Hong Kong” because they might be arrested on national security grounds or could face “possible transfer” to the mainland for prosecution. An average tourist or businessperson who comes to Hong Kong for sightseeing and relaxation has nothing to fear unless they intend to engage in “secession, subversion, terrorism, or collusion with foreign powers”, Cross said.