Leung refuses to comment about Li Wangyang suicide report
Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying refused to comment on the mainland investigation report that concluded that June 4 dissident Li Wangyang committed suicide.
Li, who was almost completely deaf and blind and who struggled to walk, was found hanged in Shaoyang, Hunan province, on June 6. He spent more than 22 years in jail after taking part in the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989 and his death sparked a public outcry and huge protests in Hong Kong.
On Thursday, Hunan police issued a report that concluded Li hanged himself with his feet still on the ground. Police said Li's sister, Li Wangling, and her husband, Zhao Baozhu, accepted the verdict. The couple had disappeared after questioning a verdict of suicide in the first report into Li's death.
Civic Party lawmaker Audrey Eu Yuet-mee asked Leung if he agreed with the report's conclusion, and added: 'Why is it so hard for Hong Kong officials to speak like men?'
Leung replied: 'Under the principle of 'one country, two systems' ... is it appropriate for a Hong Kong official ... to comment on something that happened ... on the mainland, and especially [something] that involved the local authority? This is a question that deserves deep thought.'
Pan-democratic lawmakers, including Lee Cheuk-yan, chairman of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China, remained unconvinced. Lee met representatives of local human rights organisations to discuss filing a complaint to the UN about Li's death.
League of Social Democrats member Lo Hom-chau last night returned from Changsha, Hunan, where he met officials at the provincial Ministry of Public Security to discuss Li's death. They accepted a letter of complaint about Li's case, but not the 4,000 signatures in support of it. Lo and fellow group member Chan Yu-nam also visited Beijing on Friday to submit the petition to the authorities.
