Legco Drops Salary Claim Against Four Ex-lawmakers

Legco has decided to withdraw its bid to claim back the salaries of four former lawmakers disqualified over the 2016 Legco oath-taking saga, based on the government's advice.

Demosisto's Nathan Law, Leung Kwok-hung from the League of Social Democrats, Democracy Groundwork's Lau Siu-lai and Edward Yiu were each asked to pay back around HK$3 million.

But a member of the Legislative Council Commission, the Civic Party's Dennis Kwok, said because of the strong grounds the four have in a potential legal battle, the commission decided it will not spend tens of millions of dollars of public money fighting the cases. He said it would have been unreasonable for it to do so.

Legco president Andrew Leung said the four would now be exempt from footing the full bill, on condition that they return operating funds given in advance; some prepaid expenses; as well as capital items such as mobile phones and laptops.

The total cost involved would amount to between HK$190,000 and HK$310,000 per person, Leung said.

The four were disqualified last July after a court ruled that their oaths of office were invalid. By then, they had spent nine months working as lawmakers.

______________________________