Hong Kong's new prison rules may curb lawyer and chaplain visits on national security grounds

HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong tightened prison rules, allowing authorities to restrict visits, including those by certain lawyers and religious personnel, on national security grounds, in the latest expansion of its stringent control.

Under the new rules, effective Friday, magistrates can issue warrants on application by correctional service officers to bar exchanges between specific legal representatives and persons in custody if the judges believe such connections could harm national security or cause bodily harm to any person, among other reasons.

The department can also restrict certain visits, including those made by specific chaplains, for purposes such as maintaining national security, preventing crime and facilitating inmate rehabilitation.

Critics worry the changes could undermine inmate rights in a city where many democracy advocates were arrested for their political activism following massive anti-government protests in 2019. The city now has two national security laws that Beijing deemed necessary for stability.

Official data show hundreds of people were sent to correctional services facilities each year between 2020 and 2024 over offenses linked to the protests or for allegedly endangering national security. As of Dec. 31, 2024, nearly 600 people were in custody for such offenses, according to the correctional services department.

In a discussion of the changes with lawmakers this month, Hong Kong Secretary for Security Chris Tang said some prison visitors specifically went to see inmates who were jailed for their roles in “the black violence" — a phrase officials use to describe the 2019 protests — and they continued to stoke anger against the government. Tang said that was “no good” for safeguarding national security and detrimental to maintaining prison security.

The city's government, without specifying, said a past incident in which an inmate handed over unauthorized articles to his legal adviser to take out of the prison during a visit has raised public concern. Last year, the city’s court system convicted jailed activist Owen Chow and his lawyer after the lawyer took Chow’s complaint form, concerning correctional service officers, out of prison without prior approval.

Officials maintained that when a magistrate issues a warrant to bar an inmate from consulting with a particular lawyer, the prisoner can still seek advice from another legal representative of their choice and be entitled to the right to confidential legal advice.

Lawmakers will scrutinize the legal changes next week.

Brandon Yau, secretary of the prisoner support group Waiting Bird, said it seemed some authorities believed former demonstrators of the 2019 protests were still planning organized resistance in jail, but that it doesn't match reality.

Yau, whose group supports many people jailed for social movement-related cases, said those who provided humanitarian support to the inmates just wanted to show care for their well-being in prison and concern about whether they could start anew following their release.

“It seems they (authorities) are doing something further to create an atmosphere that they would continue to target and suppress the political prisoners who were convicted for their roles in the social movement,” he said.

While there's no immediate impact on his group's work, Yau said the law has granted powers to restrict inmates’ visitor lists, and they would have to see how extensively this power is being exercised.

FILE -Vehicles believed to be carrying former pro-democracy lawmaker Gary Fan, who was released after four years for his conviction under the national security law, leaves the Shek Pik Prison in Hong Kong, April 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei, File)

FILE -Exterior view of Shek Pik Prison is seen in Hong Kong, Jan. 19, 2022. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung), File)

FILE -Exterior view of Shek Pik Prison is seen in Hong Kong, Jan. 19, 2022. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File)

FILE -The exterior view of Shek Pik Prison in Hong Kong, April 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei, File)

The leaders of Denmark and Greenland insisted Monday that the United States won't take over Greenland and demanded respect for their territorial integrity after President Donald Trump ‍​announced ​the appointment of a ‌special envoy to the semi-autonomous territory.

Trump's announcement on Sunday that Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry would be the envoy prompted a new flare-up of tensions over Washington's interest in the vast territory of Denmark, a NATO ally. Denmark's foreign minister told Danish broadcasters that he would summon the U.S. ambassador to his ministry.

”We have said it before. Now, we say it again. National borders and the sovereignty of states are rooted in international law," Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and her Greenlandic counterpart, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, said in a joint statement. “They are fundamental principles. You cannot annex another country. Not even with an argument about international security.”

“Greenland belongs to the Greenlanders and the U.S. shall not take over Greenland,” they added in the statement emailed by Frederiksen's office. "We expect respect for our joint territorial integrity.”

Trump called repeatedly during his presidential transition and the early months of his second term for U.S. jurisdiction over Greenland, and has not ruled out military force to take control of the mineral-rich, strategically located Arctic island. In March, Vice President JD Vance visited a remote U.S. military base in Greenland and accused Denmark of under-investing there.

The issue gradually drifted out of the headlines, but in August, Danish officials summoned the top U.S. diplomat in Copenhagen following a report that at least three people with connections to Trump had carried out covert influence operations in Greenland.

On Sunday, Trump announced Landry's appointment, saying on social media that “Jeff understands how essential Greenland is to our National Security, and will strongly advance our Country’s Interests for the Safety, Security, and Survival of our Allies, and indeed, the World.”

Landry wrote in a post on social media that “it’s an honor to serve you in this volunteer position to make Greenland a part of the U.S.”

The Trump administration did not offer any warning ahead of the announcement, according to a Danish government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.

The official also said Danish officials had expected Trump to signal an aggressive approach to Greenland and the Arctic in the U.S. administration’s National Security Strategy that was published last month and were surprised when the document included no mention of either.

Danish broadcasters TV2 and DR reported that in comments from the Faroe Islands Monday, Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said he summon the U.S. ambassador in Copenhagen, Kenneth Howery, to his ministry.

Greenland's prime minister wrote in a separate statement that Greenland had again woken up to a new announcement from the U.S. president, and that “it may sound significant. But it changes nothing for us here at home.”

Nielsen noted that Greenland has its own democracy and said that “we are happy to cooperate with other countries, including the United States, but this must always take place with respect for us and for our values and wishes.”

Earlier this month, the Danish Defense Intelligence Service said in an annual report that the U.S. is using its economic power to “assert its will” and threaten military force against friend and foe alike.

Denmark is a member of the European Union as well as NATO. Anouar El Anouni, a spokesperson for the EU's executive Commission, told reporters in Brussels that it wasn't for him to comment on U.S. decisions. But he underlined the bloc's position that "preserving the territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Denmark, its sovereignty and the inviolability of its borders is essential for the European Union.”

Associated Press writer Aamer Madhani in Washington contributed.

FILE - Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry speaks to reporters at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, La., Sept. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)

FILE - Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, right, and Greenland's Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen smile during their meeting at Marienborg in Kongens Lyngby, Denmark, on April 27, 2025. (Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix via AP, File)

FILE - Vice President JD Vance and second lady Usha Vance tour the U.S. military's Pituffik Space Base in Greenland, Friday, March 28, 2025. (Jim Watson/Pool via AP, File)

FILE - Denmark's Foreign Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen speaks during a Security Council meeting at the United Nations headquarters, Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025, at U.N. headquarters. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura, File)