Hong Kong leader says Beijing concerned about foreign lawyers in security cases

Hong Kong leader John Lee said on Tuesday the central government in Beijing was “highly concerned” about the issue of foreign lawyers appearing in national security cases with a landmark legal interpretation on the matter by Beijing expected soon.
Lee on Monday asked Beijing’s legislative body to rule on a Hong Kong request to block foreign lawyers from working on national security cases, after the city’s top court ruled that a British lawyer could represent jailed pro-democracy tycoon Jimmy Lai.
Lee said he expected China’s National People’s Congress Standing Committee to make a ruling on the matter “as soon as possible”, although he didn’t indicate whether this decision would come before the start of Lai’s trial on Thursday.
Hong Kong’s Department of Justice has repeatedly tried and failed to prevent British barrister Timothy Owen from representing Lai, one of the most prominent Hong Kong critics of China’s Communist Party leadership, in a landmark national security case.