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A high-profile New Zealand lawyer has joined the legal team representing a Hong Kong pro-democracy media tycoon in a landmark national security trial.
Prominent activist publisher Jimmy Lai is standing trial after he was arrested in August 2020 during a crackdown on Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement following href="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/chinas-crackdown-on-protesters-in-hong-kong-has-students-fleeing-in-fear-of-retribution/4L5ID2CNRVBT5KNUT4GM33MEVM/" target="_blank">protests in 2019.
The 76-year-old faces a possible life sentence if convicted under a national security law imposed by Beijing.
He faces charges of colluding with foreign forces to endanger national security and conspiring with others to put out seditious publications.
According to the Standard,Kiwi lawyer Marc Corlett, KC, has joined Lai’s legal team after the Hong Kong court previously upheld the Government’s decision to bar a British King’s Counsel from representing him.
Prominent activist publisher Jimmy Lai is standing trial after he was arrested in August 2020 during a crackdown on Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement following protests in 2019. Photo / AP
The Standard reported that all foreign lawyers who were not qualified to practise in Hong Kong must seek the Hong Kong chief executive’s approval to participate in national security trials.
According to Corlett’s profile on the Bernacchi Chambers website, he was admitted to the Hong Kong Bar in 2020.
He is a “specialist trial lawyer”, who has been involved in more than 180 substantive trials over civil and criminal practice.
“As a specialist trial lawyer, Marc is typically engaged on witness actions when matters are likely to proceed to a substantive trial, and where significant cross-examination experience is sought.
Marc Corlett, KC, (far right) was the lead counsel in David Benbow's first trial in the High Court at Christchurch. Photo / George Heard.
“Given his trial experience, Marc is also regularly engaged to do opinion work and appellate briefs, particularly where complex issues arise in civil or criminal litigation.”
Among his cases was defending former prison guard David Benbow at his first trial when a hung jury was declared in April. Corlett did not represent Benbow in his retrial when he was found guilty of murdering his childhood friend Michael McGrath.
Lai’s landmark trial — tied to the now-shuttered pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily that Lai founded — is widely seen as a trial for press freedom and a test for judicial independence in the former British colony, which was promised to have its Western-style civil liberties remain intact for 50 years after returning to Chinese rule in 1997.
Lai’s prosecution has drawn criticism from the United States and Britain. In Washington, US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller reiterated calls for Lai’s release this week, saying, “We have deep concerns about the deterioration in protection for human rights and fundamental freedoms in Hong Kong and that includes the rule of law.”
Hong Kong leader John Lee said he was confident in the city’s judicial system and in the professionalism of its courts. Lee said some people, particularly representatives of foreign Governments, tried to exert pressure in an effort to influence the court presiding over Lai’s case. He said such action violates the spirit of the rule of law.
