I Feel Unsafe Being Followed So I Fled: Sixtus Leung

Ousted lawmaker Sixtus Leung said on Saturday that he fled Hong Kong to seek political asylum in the United States because he feels unsafe after being followed by someone in the SAR.

Speaking in an online conference with the media, Leung said he felt someone had tailed him in Hong Kong after he was released from jail in September.

"Even [on] the day that I got released, I [can see] plainclothes of police just waiting outside Lai Chi Kok [Reception Centre]," he said.

"And on and off, they just try to tail me near some place that I live. So that's one of the reasons that make me feel unsafe in Hong Kong and one of the reasons that I leave Hong Kong."

He said he left the SAR on November 30, and is now in Washington DC living with Hong Kongers there in the US capital.

And with a small team with him, he added, he plans to lobby the US government to offer greater access for local youngsters to flee and stay in the US.

"I would like to seek for some help, especially from the US side, to the youngsters that was born after 1997 who do not have a BN(O) passport. And if US can offer a lifeboat programme, that would definitely give another choice to the youngsters right now in Hong Kong."

He also hoped to push for a new direction over how the US sanctions China in an attempt to "stop their repression of Hong Kong".

As he seeks political asylum in the United States, he conceded that he cannot tell whether he has a high chance of being granted such status as there have not been not many cases like his before.

Leung served four weeks in prison earlier this year after being convicted of taking part in an unlawful assembly while trying to push his way into a Legco meeting in 2016.

He also said he plans not to bother at all about the fact that Legislative Council has asked the local courts to declare him bankrupt because he had ignored repeated demands to repay about HK$930,000 owed in respect of his previous salary and expenses.