New Macau security law allows for trials behind closed doors

Defence lawyers will be required to obtain clearances before appearing in national security cases. Read more at straitstimes.com.

MACAU - Macau passed a Bill on March 19 that will allow judges to hear national security cases behind closed doors and require defence lawyers to obtain clearances before appearing in such cases.

The national security bill buttresses Macau’s Committee for Safeguarding National Security (CDSE), which was created in 2018 to support the Chinese city’s leader in security matters.

Macau, a former Portuguese territory which was handed back to China in 1999, has its own legal system largely based on Portuguese law, but enacted national security legislation in 2009 and widened its powers in 2023.

Under the Bill passed on March 19, defence lawyers involved in national security cases will be required to obtain permission from national security officials because of the possibility that some case information could be classified.

Macau’s Legislative Assembly said the Bill was passed unanimously.

The Bill “further strengthens the top-level framework for safeguarding national security”, the city’s government said in a statement, and demonstrates “the successful implementation of the principle ‘patriots governing Macau’”.