The top-level security and justice departments of Hong Kong’s government will each set up a new section to enforce an upcoming national security law drafted by Beijing.

The announcement by the Legislative Affairs Commission of the National People’s Congress, which is drafting the new law, dovetails with an earlier revelation by Hong Kong’s Secretary for Security John Lee that the police force was reshuffling manpower and other resources to form a new section so that it could enforce the national security law once it was enacted.

The city’s Department of Justice would also form a section specifically responsible for handling crimes related to national security, the NPC’s Legislative Affairs Commission said in a statement. The Secretary for Justice will be a member of a new national security commission to be led by the city’s chief executive.

Pro-democracy lawmaker Dennis Kwok, who represented the legal sector, said that it was unprecedented for the Department of Justice to establish a new section just for one piece of legislation. There are now six divisions under the Secretary for Justice, covering prosecutions, civil law, legal policy, law drafting, international law, and administration and development.

The NPC statement, issued on Friday evening, did not provide details on how cases would be heard at Hong Kong or mainland courts. Nor did it talk about how to fund a new national security agency to be formed in Hong Kong by the Chinese government, or whether national security agents in Hong Kong would bear firearms.

Tam Yiu-chung, a Hong Kong delegate to the National People’s Congress, said offenders in less serious cases of breaching national security could be sentenced to three years in jail, while those in more serious cases might be jailed for five to seven years.

Lawmaker Alvin Yeung, who is a barrister, said Tam’s remarks went against the spirit of common law whereby Hong Kong courts rarely set a minimum sentence for crimes.

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