HONG KONG - With less than a week to go before the divisive extradition Bill goes through a second reading,the pressure on the Hong Kong government to drop the proposed legislation has mounted, with the city's lawyers marching on Thursday (June 6) in a silent protest.

Almost 3,000 lawyers, all dressed in black, gathered at the Court of Final Appeal for their silent protest - the fifth and biggest of its kind by the city's legal community since Hong Kong was handed back to China by Britain in 1997.

At the government headquarters in Admiralty, Mr Dennis Kwok, the lawmaker representing the legal sector, urged the government to withdraw the Bill immediately.

"They came out for one reason and one reason only, because they see there's a threat to the ruleby the Chinese mainland authorities for political persecution - something the Hong Kong government has insisted will not happen.

Hong Kong's Chief Executive Carrie Lam previously explained that the proposal will plug an existing loophole in the law and that the amendments "are intended to pursue judicial justice in criminal cases and also to protect the public" so that Hong Kong is not a safe haven for dangerous fugitives. It is a point that Beijing officials have echoed.

The idea for changes to the extradition Bill was floated after a Hong Kong resident, Chan Tong-kai, confessed to killing his girlfriend in Taiwan last year.

The confession came after Chan returned to Hong Kong, which does not have an extradition agreement with Taiwan.

Instead, he was jailed in Hong Kong in April in