Pan-democrats Vow To Filibuster Extradition Bill

The opposition camp at the Legislative Council on Friday will filibuster the government’s planned changes to extradition laws, with the camp’s convenor saying they will do everything they can to stall its passage.

Lawmakers from both sides of the political divide are now rushing to join a committee that will scrutinise the bill.

Council Front lawmaker Claudia Mo said all members of the pro-democracy camp will join the committee.

“We are going to raise all kinds of arguments. We will do everything we can to try to stall it in order to bring the government into realisation that it’s a bad piece of legislation for them to try to pass quickly,” she said.

The government proposal will allow one-off extraditions to places Hong Kong does not currently have formal treaties with, including the mainland.

A recent murder case in Taiwan, in which a Hong Kong suspect could not be returned to the island for trial, was cited by the government as an example of a “loophole” in existing laws that needed to be filled.

The business sector also remains concerned about the proposal, despite the removal of nine white-collar crimes from it. There have also been fresh calls for the government to withdraw the plan completely.

However, the security secretary John Lee noted the views and would not say if the current proposal is final.

"All these views, of course, are being examined by us to see how our eventual government proposal will be discussed and explained in the Bills Committee," he told reporters after attending a meeting at Legco.

Lee added they had been in contact with Taiwanese authorities on how to take the murder case forward when the amendments are passed by Legco.