National security law: Hong Kong chief justice defends powers granted to city leader to handpick judges, says courts remain impartial | South China Morning Post

Hong Kong's chief justice on Monday defended the arrangement which allows the city leader to handpick judges hearing national security cases and dismissed what he described as "unsubstantiated doubts" over judicial independence. "Criticisms of court decisions which are made without first ascertaining the facts in a case or reading and understanding the reasons for the court's decision are as meaningless as they are hollow. So is any unsubstantiated doubt over the court's independence," Chief Justice Andrew Cheung Kui-nung said, in an inaugural speech on Monday to launch the new judicial year. "Judicial independence in Hong Kong exists as a fact."…