Legco Secretary General Dismisses 'coup' Claims

Legco's secretary general, Kenneth Chen, has pushed back against claims from pan-democrats that he staged a "coup" to help the pro-establishment camp seize control of a committee debating changes to the extradition laws.

Pro-democracy lawmakers were up in arms on Sunday after Chen, wrote to members of the bills committee asking them whether they accepted guidelines that would see pro-establishment veteran Abraham Shek preside over the bills committee.

Chen said that if committee members accepted the guidelines, which were approved by the House Committee on Saturday, Shek would take over from Democrat James To at the start of the next meeting, which is scheduled for Monday afternoon.

That infuriated members of the pro-democracy camp, who say Mr Chen's actions amount to a "coup" that hands control of the committee to their rivals. They have threatened to seek a judicial review of his actions.

Mr Chen rejected the claims. In a letter to all lawmakers, he said the Secretariat had been impartial and was making the arrangements to deal with an unprecedented situation.

He said the Secretariat was fulfilling its responsibility by writing to bills committee members to notify them of the guidelines from House Committee.

The pro-Beijing camp has also pushed back. Forty lawmakers have signed a joint statement saying that there is no need for further debate on the guidelines.

They point out that many members of the bills committee have already had their say, as they also sit on the House Committee.

Meanwhile the Security Bureau said, in a late night response to media inquiries, that it rejected the idea of allowing Hong Kong courts to try crimes committed abroad.

The concept has been suggested as an alternative to the extradition amendments, but the bureau said difficulties with collecting and assessing evidence from abroad would make it hard to give suspects a fair trial. It also rejected the argument that the existing extradition laws, agreed in 1997, were designed to specifically exclude the mainland.

The bills committee is the latest battleground in the debate over the administration's plans to amend the extradition laws to allow rendition of fugitives to any jurisdiction, including the mainland.

The committee has met twice so far but has not yet completed its first order of business, electing a permanent chairman.

The pro-establishment camp says pan-democrats are filibustering and accuse Mr To of facilitating the delaying tactics.

Pan-democrats question why there is such a rush to approve the law changes, which have already sparked Hong Kong's biggest protest in years, as well as criticism from the local and international business community.

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