Donation complaints against pro-democracy lawmakers Lee Cheuk-yan (left) and Leung Kwok-hung have been rejected. Photo: RTHK
Pan-democratic legislators Lee Cheuk-yan and Leung Kwok-hung have narrowly avoided censure for not declaring donations they accepted from media tycoon Jimmy Lai, after a Legislative Council committee voted 4-3 that they did nothing wrong.
The six members of the Legislative Council’s Committee on Members’ Interests were divided on the verdict. Pro-government councillors Jeffrey Lam, Frankie Yick and Chan Yuen-han thought Lee and Leung should have declared the donations to Legco. But pan-democratic members Emily Lau, Gary Fan, and Dennis Kwok believed the pair did nothing wrong because the donations were meant for the lawmakers’ parties not the lawmakers themselves.
Committee chairman Ip Kwok-him, from the pro-government DAB party, then cast his deciding vote against the allegations.
According to a report by the committee released on Wednesday, the Labour Party's Lee apologised for not being cautious enough when handling the HK$1.5 million donations from the Apple Daily founder in 2013 and last year. He had kept the money in his personal accounts for months.
League of Social Democrats' Leung, popularly known as "Long Hair", also admitted he had accepted a cashier order in the sum of HK$500,000, payable to himself, in 2013. But he said the money had been used to cover part of the legal cost of a party member's litigation.
Both legislators and Lai told the committee in earlier closed-door hearings that the donations were meant for the political parties, not the lawmakers themselves.
Lai added he didn't know why the sums were all made payable to the lawmakers, as it was his assistant who made the arrangements.
http://news.rthk.hk/rthk/en/component/k2/1229961-20151216.htm
