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controversial China proposes controversial Hong Kong security law

China is proposing to introduce a new security law in Hong Kong that could ban sedition, secession and treason.

The move is likely to provoke strong opposition internationally and in Hong Kong, which last year saw months of pro-democracy protests.

China’s delayed National People’s Congress, its legislature, will debate the issue when it opens on Friday.

Hong Kong’s mini-constitution requires it to bring in such a law but it failed to do so amid widespread opposition.

The so-called Basic Law was introduced when the UK handed back Hong Kong’s sovereignty to China in 1997 and provides certain freedoms not available on the mainland.

The Hong Kong dollar dropped sharply yesterday in anticipation of the announcement.

The issue has been introduced on the NPC agenda, under the title of Establishing and Improving the Legal System and Enforcement Mechanism of Hong Kong. The opening of the NPC had been delayed because of the coronavirus outbreak.

A spokesman for the NPC said yesterday that China was planning to improve on the “one country, two systems” policy that Hong Kong has observed.

Zhang Yesui said: “National security is the bedrock underpinning the stability of the country. Safeguarding national security serves the fundamental interest of all Chinese, our Hong Kong compatriots included.”

Beijing has always had the power to enact the national security law into Hong Kong’s Basic Law but has so far refrained from doing so.

But Hong Kong is heading for elections to its own legislature in September and if last year’s success for pro-democracy parties in district elections is repeated, government bills could be blocked.

A mainland source told the South China Morning Post that Beijing had decided Hong Kong would not be able to pass its own security law and the NPC would have to take the responsibility.

Hong Kong’s government had tried to enact the so-called “sedition law” in 2003 but more than 500,000 people took to the streets and it was dropped.

China has the option to impose it into Annex III of the Basic Law, which covers national laws that must be observed in Hong Kong.

It is almost certain to do so, both in Hong Kong and abroad. -BBC

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Committee probing petitions against Chief Justice to begin hearings tomorrow

The Committee set up by President John Dramani Mahama to inquire into three petitions filec against the Chief Justice, Gertrude Araba Esaaba Sackey Torkornoo, will commence hearings tomorrow, Thursday May 15, 2025.

The five-member Committee chaired by Justice Gabriel Scott Pwamang of the Supreme Court, was set up by the President in accordance with Article 146(6) of the 1992 constitution and in consultation with the Council of State, following a determination of a prima facie case against the Chief Justice.

The committee will sit three times a week and present their recommendations to the President upon completion of their work.

It would be recalled that President John Dramani Mahama recently suspended Chief Justice following the establishment of a prima facie case in response to three separate petitions seeking her removal from office.

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38-year-old man gets life imprisonment for killing Assemblies of God pastor in 2018

After close to seven years of trial, a seven-member jury on Wednesday, May 14, returned a guilty verdict in the murder case involving the killing of the Senior Pastor of the Central Assemblies of God church at Tema in 2018.

The convict, Francis Nabegmado, a relative of the deceased, inflicted a fatal knife wound on Rev. Dr. David Nabegmado on December 30, 2018, after alleging that the senior pastor was a false preacher who engaged in idol worship and human sacrifices.

After an hour of summing up by the judge, Mary Maame Ekue Yanzuh, the jury retired briefly and returned with a unanimous guilty verdict.

Based on the unanimous verdict of the jurors who had previously studied the statements of the five witnesses called by the prosecution, and listened to the summing up process, the judge sentenced the 38-year-old to life imprisonment.

When he was offered an opportunity to comment on the verdict, the convict told the judge that he wanted to go home to meet his family.

“My Lady, I want to see my family, and I want to be taken to Yendi”.

When the judge told him she couldn’t make such an order for him to go and see his family in Yendi, the convict forcefully said, “I insist”.

Francis, who will now spend the rest of his life at the Nsawam medium security prison, had told the court throughout the trial that the decision to attack his uncle, Rev. Nebegmado, was driven by insanity, but that did not save him from receiving a life sentence.

Speaking briefly after the sentencing, Senior Pastor of the Assemblies of God church at Tema Community 4, Rev. Emmanuel Kwesi Ofori, said the church has been waiting for this closure for the past seven years and will soon issue an official statement.

Source: Myjoyonline.com