Committee agrees with the exclusion of non-Chinese judges

The majority of the members of the 3rd Standing Committee of the Legislative Assembly (AL) have agreed with the proposal to ban non-Chinese national judges from ruling on cases “related to national security,” the president of the committee, Vong Hin Fai, said to the media after the meeting held this week.

“The majority believes that this amendment is not contrary to the Basic Law, nor to the independence of the courts and the judicial system,” Vong said in a Macau Radio report. Vong added that the government believes that, taking into account the “sensitive matters” that are referred to in the State Security and Defense Law, “it is justified that the proceedings relating to these crimes should [be decided using] the competence of permanent judges and Chinese citizens [only],” arguments which he said that the majority of the committee members agreed with.

Despite the apparent consensus, the president of the 3rd Committee noted that the members expressed several concerns regarding how the judges permitted to rule on such cases would be chosen. It is only known that the selection will be made by the Council of Judicial Magistrates, headed by the president of the Court of Final Appeal, Sam Hou Fai, but the criteria that  guides such a choice remains undisclosed.

For this reason, Vong said that the committee needs to ask for further justification from the government about how the principles of natural justice will be safeguarded and how the distribution of cases will be made.

It was also clear at this stage that in relation to the Public Prosecutions Office, prosecutors will follow the same rule, being selected among those who hold permanent nominations and who are also Chinese citizens.

According to TDM, there are inconsistencies between the Portuguese and the Chinese versions of the law, as in the Portuguese language version it is clearly stated that in cases involving national security, the cases “would be judged by more than one judge,” but this requirement is in need of clarification in the Chinese version.