A high-profile British judge who resigned from Hong Kong’s highest court last week has warned the city is “slowly becoming a totalitarian state” and judges are being compromised by an “impossible political environment created by China”.

Lord Sumption’s comments on Monday came as a third senior foreign judge in the past week resigned from the Court of Final Appeal.

“The problem in Hong Kong has been building up over the last four years and I think all the judges on the court feel concerned about this,” Lord Sumption told the BBC’s Today programme.

“I have reached the point eventually where I don’t think that my continuing presence on the court is serving any useful purpose.”

On Monday he wrote in a newspaper op-ed that the city’s rule of law has been “profoundly compromised”.

  • katy ✨@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    2
    arrow-down
    14
    ·
    5 months ago

    someone from the uk complaining about another country becoming a totalitarian state is laughable.

    • Womble@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      5 months ago

      Ah yes, totalitarian UK which is about to (almost certianly) undergo a peaceful change of government after a free and fair election. Truely is there any less democratic place?