Michael Vidler has built his legal career on fighting for the “little guy” inBut not any more. After 30 years in the city, the 58-year-old human rights lawyer has been forced to flee back to Britain because of concerns about the Beijing-drafted national security law and “unfounded allegations” from the increasingly bellicose state-controlled press.“I lived here for 30 years. This has been my home.
One of those questions was “Are you leaving because you are a traitor?” The grilling continued until he went into the restricted area.In Hong Kong, concerted front-page campaigns in the Beijing-backed press are often seen as a warning of looming trouble. “I saw that as essentially a call to action by the national security police against my firm,” Vidler said. “[The] thought that I could be associated with the crimes to which my clients were accused, merely because my client may have been found with my business card, was just horrific to me. And the fact that this was said by a national security judge was greatly concerning.
“I set up my firm with a specific focus to give voice to the ‘little guy,’ to give people rights, [to give] an ordinary person in Hong Kong access to justice,” he told HKFP. Vidler said he grew up in a very accepting environment and decided to do something for Hong Kong when he learned of the city’s backwardness in regards to LGBT issues: “[I]t seems to me so egregious – the law, and so discriminatory … It seemed a very important thing to do. And from then on, it just seemed natural.”Having returned to Britain, there are several cases Vidler will not be able to guide through Hong Kong’s slow-moving justice system.
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