Key facts
- Hong Kong enacted new legislation allowing national security procedures for older cases.
- The law permits retroactive application of national security procedures to offenses committed before the 2020 national security law.
- A classification mechanism for 'other offenses endangering national security' has been introduced.
- The subsidiary legislation came into effect on Tuesday.
Hong Kong's new legislation allows national security procedures to be applied retroactively to criminal cases, even if the alleged offenses occurred before the enactment of the 2020 national security law. The subsidiary legislation, which introduces a classification mechanism for "other offenses endangering national security" under the city’s domestic national security law, was gazetted and came into effect on Tuesday. Under the new law, any case certified by the chief executive will be subject to these procedures.