The motorcyclist charged under the national security law has had his habeas corpus application denied on procedural grounds. His bail hearing continues next week.
More importantly, the court rejected the view that the national security law includes a "no bail" provision.
More importantly, the court rejected the view that the national security law includes a "no bail" provision.
Although these are early days in judicial interpretation of the national security law, the High Court has taken the view that the impact of Article 42 of the NSL is "more apparent than real" and the criteria for granting bail will not be different in the vast majority of cases.
As a reminder, here is the wording in Article 42 of the NSL. The motorcyclist's legal team had argued that the phrase "will not continue" violated the presumption of innocence because "will not continue" implies that the defendant did something before and had to admit to it.
The court ruled today that Article 42 "should not even be read as imposing a presumption against bail" which is an important statement to make at this early stage, since some commentators had already adopted this phrasing.
On a lesser note, the court also rejected the view that the national security law is an inaccessible law because the published English version is not official. legalref.judiciary.hk/doc/judg/word/…
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
