Prosecutors weighed evidence yesterday on the finance chief's purchase of a luxury car right before he raised auto taxes, while analysts warned the scandal could escalate Hong Kong's political crisis.
Secretary for Justice Elsie Leung (
Critics said the matter was so politically charged the government should take direction from independent lawyers to avoid any perceptions of unfairness.
Leung was widely criticized after he bought a new Lexus in January and then raised auto taxes in March, saving himself HK$190,000 (US$24,359). He said it was an oversight and sought to make amends by donating money to charity.
Hong Kong's Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) investigated the matter and officials said Tuesday night the findings had been handed to the Justice Department.
"We've received the report," Elsie Leung told reporters yesterday. "The prosecution division is studying it. I can't tell you how much time we need to consider it as I haven't seen it. The consideration is according to our criminal prosecution policies."
The justice chief said any decision on whether to prosecute would be hers, but pledged that "the case of Secretary Leung is no different from other cases. We would treat it in the same manner."
However, Antony Leung's case is being decided when the government of Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa (
A half-million people marched on July 1 against an anti-subversion bill that they called a threat to freedoms, and Tung eventually had to backtrack on the matter.
One political scientist said yesterday the Antony Leung issue was too politically charged for Elsie Leung to make the call, and independent legal advisers should be brought in.
"If the government is going to decide on its own and if the final decision is to make no prosecution, it will trigger a huge anti-Tung crisis, so big that nothing could control the public anger," said Ivan Choy of the City University of Hong Kong.
Elsie Leung came under fire in 1999 when she opted against prosecuting a prominent former publisher, Sally Aw (
Far from the violence ravaging Haiti, a market on the border with the Dominican Republic has maintained a welcome degree of normal everyday life. At the Dajabon border gate, a wave of Haitians press forward, eager to shop at the twice-weekly market about 200km from Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. They are drawn by the market’s offerings — food, clothing, toys and even used appliances — items not always readily available in Haiti. However, with gang violence bad and growing ever worse in Haiti, the Dominican government has reinforced the usual military presence at the border and placed soldiers on alert. While the market continues to
An image of a dancer balancing on the words “China Before Communism” looms over Parisian commuters catching the morning metro, signaling the annual return of Shen Yun, a controversial spectacle of traditional Chinese dance mixed with vehement criticism of Beijing and conservative rhetoric. The Shen Yun Performing Arts company has slipped the beliefs of a spiritual movement called Falun Gong in between its technicolored visuals and leaping dancers since 2006, with advertising for the show so ubiquitous that it has become an Internet meme. Founded in 1992, Falun Gong claims nearly 100 million followers and has been subject to “persistent persecution” in
ONLINE VITRIOL: While Mo Yan faces a lawsuit, bottled water company Nongfu Spring and Tsinghua University are being attacked amid a rise in nationalist fervor At first glance, a Nobel prize winning author, a bottle of green tea and Beijing’s Tsinghua University have little in common, but in recent weeks they have been dubbed by China’s nationalist netizens as the “three new evils” in the fight to defend the country’s valor in cyberspace. Last month, a patriotic blogger called Wu Wanzheng filed a lawsuit against China’s only Nobel prize-winning author, Mo Yan (莫言), accusing him of discrediting the Communist army and glorifying Japanese soldiers in his fictional works set during the Japanese invasion of China. Wu, who posts online under the pseudonym “Truth-Telling Mao Xinghuo,” is seeking
‘SURPRISES’: The militants claim to have successfully tested a missile capable of reaching Mach 8 and vowed to strike ships heading toward the Cape of Good Hope Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim to have a new, hypersonic missile in their arsenal, Russia’s state media reported on Thursday, potentially raising the stakes in their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and surrounding waterways against the backdrop of Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The report by the state-run RIA Novosti news agency cited an unidentified official, but provided no evidence for the claim. It comes as Moscow maintains an aggressively counter-Western foreign policy amid its grinding war on Ukraine. However, the Houthis have for weeks hinted about “surprises” they plan for the battles at sea to counter the