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Lawmaker "Long Hair" Leung Kwok-hung outside the District Court in Wan Chai for a different matter. Photo: Nora Tam

Hong Kong lawmaker ‘Long Hair’ Leung denies acting in contempt at Legco meeting over Wang Chau housing data leak

Through his lawyer, pan-democrat pleads not guilty over heated incident last year

A Hong Kong pro-democratic lawmaker denied on Monday committing contempt at a raucous legislative meeting on a consultancy firm accused of disclosing confidential information last year.

“Long Hair” Leung Kwok-hung, 60, pleaded not guilty through his lawyer at Eastern Court to a summons of contempt under the Legislative Council (Powers and Privileges) Ordinance.

It is alleged Leung had created a disturbance during the Legislative Council housing and development committee meeting on November 15, 2016, causing it to be interrupted or likely to be interrupted.

At the meeting, government officials including then development undersecretary Eric Ma Siu-cheung came under fire for not answering questions relating to Arup, an engineering consultancy firm.

The government commissioned Arup in March last year to carry out a study on a public housing project in Wang Chau, Yuen Long. The Development Bureau later found the firm to have leaked confidential internal data in a separate application on behalf of property conglomerate New World Development to build a private residential development in Wing Ning Tsuen, next to the Wang Chau project.

Prosecutors alleged Leung approached Ma to borrow his folder on the day and did not return it when asked to do so by committee chairwoman Alice Mak Mei-kuen.

On Monday, Leung did not attend the court hearing on the matter, which did not require his presence. The lawmaker was attending a separate criminal hearing, his lawyer said.

“On behalf of Mr Leung Kwok-hung, I plead not guilty,” his solicitor, Jonathan Man Ho-ching, told Magistrate Kenneth Chan Ping-chau.

Chan adjourned the case to August 7 for another hearing before the trial, which could feature Ma as a prosecution witness.

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