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Hong Kong prisons will offer proof if seeking to ban specific lawyers: Chris Tang

Security chief says authorities will supply ‘intelligence’ when applying for court order

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A Correctional Services Department officer stands in front of Lai Chi Kok Reception Centre, a maximum security prison in Kowloon. Photo: Reuters

Authorities will provide sufficient evidence and “intelligence” to support any move to restrict specific lawyers from visiting inmates under proposed prison rule changes, Hong Kong’s security chief has said.

Secretary for Security Chris Tang Ping-keung gave the assurance on Monday at a Legislative Council panel meeting where most members had voiced support for the proposals, while one lawmaker called the restrictions “ridiculous”.

Tang told the security panel meeting that a magistrate would need to be satisfied with the government’s submissions to grant a court warrant to restrict legal visits. He added that authorities would have “intelligence” for suspected behaviour violating the proposed five “key purposes” for prison visits.

“We will tell the court if we have intelligence from somewhere else that a lawyer might help smuggle [objects] out of the prison,” Tang said without pinpointing a specific case.

Activist Owen Chow Ka-shing, who is currently serving jail time under the national security law, was fined HK$1,800 (US$230) for instructing one of his legal advisers to take his complaint against the Correctional Services Department to the ombudsman.

Tang was responding to lawmaker Paul Tse Wai-chun, who questioned how authorities could gather sufficient evidence to file a court warrant to limit a specific lawyer or staff from their law firm from contacting a designated inmate, when legal visits in prisons were confidential in nature.

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