Opposition Seeks Judicial Review Over UGL Decision

The opposition is seeking to launch a legal challenge against the government over the decision not to prosecute former Chief Executive CY Leung over payments made by Australian firm UGL, saying they are stepping up to defend Hong Kong's rule of law and anti-corruption image.

An application for a judicial review has been filed by the League of Social Democrats' Tsang Kin-shing, challenging the Department of Justice's (DOJ) decision on December 12, 2018 not to prosecute the former chief executive over his non-disclosure of the multimillion dollar payments.

Democratic Party lawmaker Lam Cheuk-ting said they believe there were errors in how the DOJ came to its decision last year.

They are also challenging the decision not to prosecute DAB lawmaker Holden Chow for "improper interference" with a Legislative Council select committee that was looking into the UGL payments.

“The Secretary for Justice decided not to seek independent legal advice before she made the final decision not to prosecute CY Leung and Holden Chow, which is contrary to the guidelines of the Department of Justice, and the precedents in relation to those former top government officials' criminal cases,” he said.

The application for a judicial review says they want the decisions to be quashed, and for there to be an order to prosecute Leung and Chow for misconduct in public office. Alternatively, they want the Secretary for Justice to reconsider the decisions.

Leung's undeclared acceptance of around HK$50 million from UGL had been under investigation for four years before the DOJ announced it wasn't going to prosecute him.

The money was part of a non-compete, non-poach agreement related to Leung's time as a director of DTZ Holdings, which was taken over by UGL in 2011.

News of the agreement broke on October 8, 2014 and Leung, who was by then the chief executive, issued a statement saying the payments arose from his resignation from DTZ, and not any future service to be provided by him.

He said the agreement was concluded after he had resigned from the Executive Council, and before he was elected as chief executive – adding, there was no legal requirement under Hong Kong's laws to declare these payments.

Chow introduced amendments to a Legco committee's proposed areas of study into the controversy that were later found to have been drafted by Leung himself. Both said there was nothing wrong with that, but Chow later withdrew from the committee.