Hong Kong justice secretary defends independence of city’s judiciary after report of Beijing interference in legal system
- Secretary for Justice Teresa Cheng says city cannot allow any ‘misleading statements’
- Report anonymously quoted three ‘senior judges’ expressing concern over meddling in future judicial appointments
Justice minister Teresa Cheng Yeuk-wah has said Hong Kong’s top judge was the best person to confirm that mainland Chinese authorities did not interfere in the legal system, as she responded to a report questioning the city’s judicial independence.
Cheng said the independence of the judiciary, which is guaranteed under the Basic Law, was intact, adding that politics never came into consideration when it came to appointing judges.
In recent years years, there have been instances of Beijing expressing an opinion on high-profile cases of constitutional importance.
On Wednesday, Chief Justice Geoffrey Ma Tao-li issued a rare statement responding to a Reuters report, in which three unnamed “senior judges” expressed concerns that Beijing could meddle in future judicial appointments.
In his statement Ma said that, since becoming the city’s top judge in 2010, he had never “encountered or experienced any form of interference by the mainland authorities”.
