Lawmakers will face committee over donations

The five pan-democratic lawmakers who allegedly failed to declare donations from media tycoon Jimmy Lai Chee-ying will be asked to respond to the accusations within two weeks before a Legislative Council committee, which will then decide whether to launch a probe.

The Committee on Members' Interests held a closed-door meeting on the allegations yesterday after it received 12 emails from members of the public and a joint letter from five Federation of Trade Unions lawmakers all complaining about pan-democrats they say failed to declare donations from Lai to Legco, as is required by its rules of procedure.

It came to light when some 900 files concerning the Apple Daily founder's political donations were leaked to the media last week. The lawmakers caught up in the storm included Democrat James To Kun-sun, Claudia Mo Man-ching and Alan Leong Kah-kit of the Civic Party, the Labour Party's Lee Cheuk-yan, and Leung Kwok-hung of the League of Social Democrats.

Speaking after the two-hour meeting, committee chairman Ip Kwok-him said the members were taking a preliminary look at the complaints against To, Mo, Leung and Lee. "We are only calling on them to offer any explanation regarding the complaints," Ip said, adding that the committee would decide whether to take the matter further after the lawmakers respond.

Leong would be asked only to submit information as he had clarified the issue ahead of yesterday's meeting, Ip said. If proof of his claim - that he received funds on behalf of the Alliance for True Democracy - was accepted then the matter would be dropped.

Leung, who allegedly received at least HK$500,000 from Lai, said he was advised that he did not have to declare donations to the legislature if the funds were received on behalf of the League.