Hong Kong’s Department of Justice (DoJ) has deleted an online database of national security cases, without explanation and days after it was published.
The index, published last Thursday, included PDF case summaries relating to 106 national security law cases that have been completed since Beijing inserted the legislation into Hong Kong’s mini constitution in June 2020.
However, the index had disappeared soon afterwards, according to a Sunday newsletter from local news platform TransitJam.
A DoJ press release last Thursday said the case summaries were made public in an “open and transparent” manner to “serve as a convenient and practical tool for promoting national security education and conducting legal research on the national security laws.”
“This body of case-law helps us understand the requirements of our national security laws and how they are being applied by the courts,” the Secretary for Justice Paul Lam was quoted as saying.
National security cases are overseen by handpicked judges, and have thus far seen a 100 per cent conviction rate.
When approached by HKFP for an explanation, a spokesperson for the DoJ said on Monday: “Content of relevant webpages will be adjusted and amended having regard to circumstances.”
The department did not respond when asked why the content was removed and whether it would be restored.
China tightens access to judicial docs
The DoJ’s move came as China tightened access to court records again last month, following a decade of greater judicial transparency, Ming Pao reported. The Supreme People’s Court cited privacy and security for reducing the number of judicial documents published online. The move comes amid a wider effort to scale back access to data Beijing believes to be sensitive.
China vowed to make judgements publicly accessible as part of its 2001 ascension to the World Trade Organization, as part of the trade body’s regulations on legal transparency.
Beijing inserted national security legislation directly into Hong Kong’s mini-constitution in June 2020 following a year of pro-democracy protests and unrest. It criminalised subversion, secession, collusion with foreign forces and terrorist acts – broadly defined to include disruption to transport and other infrastructure. The move gave police sweeping new powers and led to hundreds of arrests amid new legal precedents, while dozens of civil society groups disappeared. The authorities say it restored stability and peace to the city, rejecting criticism from trade partners, the UN and NGOs.
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