British rights lawyer leaves Hong Kong following questioning by police

The former chairman of the Hong Kong Bar Association (HKBA), who resigned following a string of attacks on the organization from media backed by the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP), has left the city after being interviewed by national security police.

British human rights lawyer Paul Harris was summoned by national security police, the pro-CCP Wen Wei Po reported, saying he declined to respond when asked if he was suspected of violating a national security law that outlaws public criticism of the government, as well as political opposition activities.

Harris was seen entering Wanchai police station at 11.00 a.m. on March 1, later appearing at Hong Kong International Airport and boarding a flight to Turkey with his wife and children, the paper said.

Harris told Reuters he was on his was to visit his mother in England, but gave no further details, the agency reported.

Harris resigned as chairman of the HKBA, which represents some 1,500 barristers in Hong Kong, in January without seeking re-election, following repeated criticisms in the pro-CCP media and from Hong Kong and Chinese officials, who said he was "anti-China."

He had been involved in a number of cases under the national security law. His replacement, Victor Dawes, is seen as more sympathetic to Beijing.

The attacks followed his public comments on the sentencing of several democracy activists, and on the draconian national security law imposed by the CCP on Hong Kong from July 1, 2020.

The Wen Wei Po said Harris had spoken out against the charging of pro-democracy media mogul Jimmy Lai, currently in jail awaiting trial under the national security law, when Lai was charged with separate counts of "illegal assembly" in connection with a peaceful protest in August 2019.

'Revolution of our Times'

The paper said Harris' U.K. law firm, Doughty Street Chambers, "has strong political overtones," and had recently offered to defend Lai at his forthcoming court hearing on March 10.

It cited sources as saying that the Chinese-language version of Harris' book about the Hong Kong protest movement "may have content that smears the rule of law in mainland China and promotes independence for Hong Kong."

Meanwhile, documentaries about the 2019 protest movement that sought to resist the erosion of Hong Kong's promised freedoms will be shown in the U.K. after being banned in Hong Kong under the national security law.

Tickets are selling fast for the first Hong Kong Film Festival in the country, where thousands of Hongkongers have taken up the offer of a safe haven and pathway to citizenship under the U.K. government's British National Overseas (BNO) visa scheme.

The festival will open with "Revolution of our Times," a documentary about the protest movement that uses a slogan once chanted by protesters that has resulted in arrests and jailings under the law. "Inside Red Walls," a documentary about the siege of Hong Kong's Polytechnic University, will also be screened.

Documentary filmmaker and writer Wong Ching, a co-curator of the festival, said the film is a testament to the struggles of young people in Hong Kong over the past two or three years.

"We have some fairly commercial mainstream films, and some independent films as well," Wong told RFA. "Some would be pretty marginal back in Hong Kong, and have little chance of being released."

"But there are more art cinemas in the UK, and the festival also wants to include Hong Kong stories from a more indy perspective, so the audiences gets a wider exposure to different takes, and different film languages," Wong said.

The festival is also hoping that the films will be seen by everyone, not just exiled Hongkongers.

"We have focused on how to show the reality of Hong Kong at different levels, presenting multiple versions of the story," Wong said.

The festival runs from March 30 through April 6 in London, Manchester, Bristol and Edinburgh.

Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.