British judge Lord David Neuberger is facing pressure from rights groups to step down from Hong Kong’s top court after upholding the convictions of British citizen Jimmy Lai and six others over their roles in the 2019 pro-democracy protests in the city.
Since Beijing imposed the national security law on Hong Kong in 2020, several foreign non-permanent judges have resigned. Some of them cited the draconian law as the reason.
Neuberger came under criticisms, including by Hong Kong’s last British governor, Lord Chris Patten, after HKCFA rejected a bid to overturn the convictions of seven prominent pro-democracy activists, including Lai, on Aug. 12.
Lai, 76, founder of the now-defunct liberal newspaper Apple Daily; Martin Lee, 86, founding chairman of Hong Kong’s Democratic Party; and five other activists were convicted in 2021 for their roles in an “unlawful” assembly in August 2019, when nearly 2 million people rallied on the streets.
Last year, a lower court overturned its convictions for organizing the rally while upholding the convictions for participating in it.
The defendants had argued that the trial judge should have conducted an “operational proportionality” assessment to determine whether their conviction was proportionate to human rights protections.
That principle is set in two nonbinding decisions of Britain’s Supreme Court. The defendants also argued that the judge should have taken into account that “the procession did not descend into violence.”
However, on Aug. 12, a panel of five judges ruled against the defendants, with Chief Justice Andrew Cheung and Judge Roberto Ribeiro saying the British court’s decisions shouldn’t be followed in Hong Kong because of differing legal frameworks in the two jurisdictions.
“This is a right guaranteed under Hong Kong’s Basic Law, and Hong Kong’s obligations under international law,” the letter reads.
The NGOs said Neuberger’s continued involvement in HKCFA is “in effect sponsoring a systematic repression of human rights against peaceful activists and journalists in the city” and “further tarnishing the reputation of the British judiciary,” urging him to quit as some of his former colleagues did.
Neuberger didn’t respond to The Epoch Times’ request for comment.
![Jimmy Lai outside West Kowloon Magistrates' Court in Hong Kong on Sept. 18, 2020. (Sung Pi-lung/The Epoch Times)](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimg.theepochtimes.com%2Fassets%2Fuploads%2F2024%2F08%2F12%2Fid5704442-Jimmy-Lai-09182020-LSedit-600x400.jpg&w=1200&q=75)
“I have now concluded that I should go now, because it is undesirable that focus on my position as a non-permanent Judge in Hong Kong should take away, or distract, from the critical and impactful work of the High Level Panel,” he said.
Foreign Judges Who Stepped Down
However, a number of foreign judges have quit their roles since Beijing’s rubber-stamp legislature imposed a national security law on Hong Kong four years ago that has suppressed public dissent.Citing concerns over the national security law, Reed said in a statement at the time that he and Hodge had resigned because UK Supreme Court judges could not “continue to sit in Hong Kong without appearing to endorse an administration which has departed from values of political freedom, and freedom of expression, to which the justices of the Supreme Court are deeply committed.”