HONG KONG: A senior Hong Kong judge sided with the government on Friday and dismissed the first legal challenge to the city’s newly enacted national security law, which had been brought by a jailed protester.
Ma Chun-man — known as “Captain America 2.0” for carrying a replica of the Marvel superhero’s shield during democracy rallies in 2019 — was imprisoned for “inciting secession” under a national security law imposed by Beijing in 2020.
He had hoped to receive a one-third sentence remission — typically granted to inmates for good behavior — and be released in March.
But the passage of another national security law this year effectively banned remission for people convicted of national security crimes, and Ma’s request for early release was denied.
Ma challenged the decision, but on Friday the court said the new system was “sufficiently precise and certain” for prisoners to know how to earn an early release.
“There is no question of Mr. Ma being subject to any additional or heavier penalty by operation” of the new rules, High Court judge Alex Lee ruled.
“The applicant’s substantive judicial review is dismissed,” said Lee, who is among a pool of jurists selected by Hong Kong’s leader to hear security cases.
Hong Kong court rejects first legal challenge to new security law
https://arab.news/9qbk5
Hong Kong court rejects first legal challenge to new security law
- First legal challenge to the city’s newly enacted national security law brought by a jailed protester
- Ma Chun-man, known as ‘Captain America 2.0, was imprisoned under the national security law
Thousands of Venezuelans march to demand Maduro’s release
- Several demonstrators, many of them public sector workers, held photos of Maduro and of his wife, Cilia Flores, who were both seized by US forces on January 3 to stand trial on drug charges in New York
CARACAS: Thousands of backers of Venezuela’s former leader Nicolas Maduro, ousted in a deadly US military operation a month ago, marched in Caracas on Tuesday to demand his freedom.
“Venezuela needs Nicolas,” chanted the crowd, as stand-in President Delcy Rodriguez navigates a tightrope between holding on to support from Washington but also from Maduro acolytes in her government and the Venezuelan people.
Several demonstrators, many of them public sector workers, held photos of Maduro and of his wife, Cilia Flores, who were both seized by US forces on January 3 to stand trial on drug charges in New York.
Called by the government, the march stretched for several hundred meters, accompanied by trucks blaring music.
Many protesters waved Venezuelan flags and were dressed in the red colors of the ruling “Chavista” movement named after Maduro’s socialist predecessor Hugo Chavez.
“We feel confused, sad, angry. There are a lot of emotions,” said Jose Perdomo, a 58-year-old municipal employee who also declared his backing “for the decisions taken by our interim president, Delcy Rodriguez.”
He added that “sooner or later they will have to free our president.”
US President Donald Trump has said he is willing to work with Rodriguez as long as she toes Washington’s line, particularly on granting access to Venezuela’s vast oil reserves.
Under pressure, Rodriguez has started freeing political prisoners and opened Venezuela’s nationalized hydrocarbons industry to private investment.
She was a staunch backer of Maduro, and served as his vice president.
