HKSAR govt lodges new legal actions to disqualify four more legislators over invalid oaths

HONG KONG - The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) government on Friday launched a new round of legal actions to disqualify four more members of the Legislative Council (LegCo) for their invalid oaths.

On behalf of the Hong Kong Chief Executive, the Department of Justice submitted an application for a judicial review to the High Court, which requests the court to rule whether the four LegCo members' oaths comply with the Hong Kong Basic Law and whether they are still qualified to serve.

The four legislators are Lau Siu-lai, Yiu Chung-yim, Law Kwun-Chung and Leung Kwok-hung.

The SAR government's legal actions came two days after an appeal court upheld the government's legal bid to disqualify two legislators-elect who used derogatory language insulting the country and nation when taking oaths at a swearing-in ceremony of the new LegCo on Oct. 12.

Also on that occasion, Lau deliberately took the oath very slowly by pausing for five to six seconds in between every word in order to, by her own explanation, make the oath meaningless. The LegCo president invalidated Lau's oath but allowed her to retake the oath.

The SAR government's judicial review also challenged the LegCo president's decision to allow Lau to have a second chance to take the oath.

The other three LegCo members targeted in the judicial review added political slogans and appeals to the standard oaths or used strange tones when swearing allegiance to the Hong Kong SAR of the People's Republic of China.

A statement released by the SAR government on Friday said the Basic Law clearly stipulates that the LegCo members should swear allegiance to the Basic Law and the Hong Kong SAR, so any person who declines or neglects to take an oath duly requested should vacate his office if he has already entered on it or be disqualified if he has not.

An SAR government spokesperson said the Chief Executive shoulder the constitutional responsibility to safeguard and implement the Hong Kong Basic Law and relevant laws, and the legal actions were launched after consulting independent senior counsels.