HONG KONG: Hong Kong said on Tuesday it is suspending extradition agreements and pacts on mutual legal assistance with the Netherlands and Ireland, escalating a diplomatic spat in the wake of Beijing’s new national security law for the city.
The news comes weeks after the Netherlands and Ireland joined Britain, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Germany and Finland in suspending extradition treaties with Hong Kong following the implementation of the legislation.
Critics of the law, which punishes what Beijing broadly defines as secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces with up to life in prison, fear it will be used to trample freedoms in the former British colony.
Critics have also expressed concern that those who fall foul of the law could face trial in mainland China where courts are tightly controlled by the Communist Party.
In a statement, the Hong Kong government said the moves by the Netherlands and Ireland to suspend extradition treaties with the semi-autonomous city “are open interference in China’s internal affairs and a violation of international law and basic norms governing international relations.”
Authorities in Beijing and the financial center have said the law is necessary to ensure Hong Kong’s stability and prosperity after a year of anti-government protests that plunged the Chinese-ruled city into its biggest crisis in decades.
On Monday, the United States imposed sanctions on four more Chinese officials in Hong Kong’s governing and security establishment over their alleged role in crushing dissent in the global financial hub.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the sanctions were for their role in implementing the national security law, which came into force on June 30.
Hong Kong suspends pacts with Ireland, Netherlands as diplomatic row escalates
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Hong Kong suspends pacts with Ireland, Netherlands as diplomatic row escalates
- Hong Kong’s government said the moves by the Netherlands and Ireland to suspend extradition treaties with the semi-autonomous city ‘are open interference in China’s internal affairs’
- Authorities in Beijing and the financial center said the new national security law is necessary to ensure Hong Kong’s stability and prosperity after a year of anti-government protests
France’s Le Pen insists party acted in ‘good faith’ at EU fraud appeal
- Le Pen said on her second day of questioning that even if her party broke the law, it was unintentional
- She also argued that the passage of time made it “extremely difficult” for her to prove her innocence
PARIS: French far-right leader Marine Le Pen told an appeals trial on Wednesday that her party acted in “good faith,” denying an effort to embezzle European Parliament funds as she fights to keep her 2027 presidential bid alive.
A French court last year barred Le Pen, a three-time presidential candidate from the far-right National Rally (RN), from running for office for five years over a fake jobs scam at the European institution.
It found her, along with 24 former European Parliament lawmakers, assistants and accountants as well as the party itself, guilty of operating a “system” from 2004 to 2016 using European Parliament funds to employ party staff in France.
Le Pen — who on Tuesday rejected the idea of an organized scheme — said on her second day of questioning that even if her party broke the law, it was unintentional.
“We were acting in complete good faith,” she said in the dock on Wednesday.
“We can undoubtedly be criticized,” the 57-year-old said, shifting instead the blame to the legislature’s alleged lack of information and oversight.
“The European Parliament’s administration was much more lenient than it is today,” she said.
Le Pen also argued that the passage of time made it “extremely difficult” for her to prove her innocence.
“I don’t know how to prove to you what I can’t prove to you, what I have to prove to you,” she told the court.
Eleven others and the party are also appealing in a trial to last until mid-February, with a decision expected this summer.
- Rules were ‘clear’ -
Le Pen was also handed a four-year prison sentence, with two years suspended, and fined 100,000 euros ($116,000) in the initial trial.
She now again risks the maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a one-million-euro ($1.16 million) fine if the appeal fails.
Le Pen is hoping to be acquitted — or at least for a shorter election ban and no time under house arrest.
On Tuesday, Le Pen pushed back against the argument that there was an organized operation to funnel EU funds to the far-right party.
“The term ‘system’ bothers me because it gives the impression of manipulation,” she said.
EU Parliament official Didier Klethi last week said the legislature’s rules were “clear.”
EU lawmakers could employ assistants, who were allowed to engage in political activism, but this was forbidden “during working hours,” he said.
If the court upholds the first ruling, Le Pen will be prevented from running in the 2027 election, widely seen as her best chance to win the country’s top job.
She made it to the second round in the 2017 and 2022 presidential polls, before losing to Emmanuel Macron. But he cannot run this time after two consecutive terms in office.
