HK cops ‘free’ to probe past offences
Security law can be applied retroactively
HONG KONG: Recent court judgements have freed Hong Kong authorities to use national security powers to deploy tough colonial-era laws in a crackdown against opposition groups, alarming activists and lawyers in the city.
Police have launched investigations into acts that took place before the national security law was imposed a year ago, despite assurances by Beijing and Hong Kong that the financial hub’s legislation would not be retroactive.
The recent probes have unnerved pro-democracy campaigners across the city, leaving some to fear they face prosecution for acts they believed to be legal at the time.
“We are starting to see a fuller evolution of the national security law, and the way it allows the authorities to look at older laws and past events through a new lens,” said Simon Young, a professor at the University of Hong Kong’s law school.
“We can see it gives them new powers and confidence to use laws that were perhaps overlooked, or seen as previously unenforceable.”
Several groups, including veteran protest organiser Civil Human Rights Front, are under investigation for acts that pre-date the security law, according to statements by senior police and reports in pro-Beijing media.
Asked about statements from Police Commissioner Raymond Siu that the Front was being investigated over marches that predate the law, a force spokesman said last month that “police will continue to investigate if any organisation and person have violated the ... security law and other Hong Kong regulations”.
Some legal scholars and lawyers say the situation reveals the full sweep of the law — including its ability to effectively reboot laws from the British colonial era that touch on national security.
Two paragraphs in recent court judgements appear to clear the path for security probes into past actions, they warn.
Separately, one February ruling in the Court of Final Appeal suggested that the national security law’s reference to “acts endangering national security” included violations of older laws.
And a District Court ruling in April noted that under the security law, the older offence of sedition was now classified as a more serious crime, potentially removing its previous statute of limitations of six months.
Beijing imposed the national security law on Hong Kong last year, seeking to punish what it sees as subversion, secession, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces.