Hong Kong finance chief Paul Chan faces yet another court case over defaming children

Last-ditch appeal at top court looms, in case that emanated from Chan’s wife accusing daughter’s classmates of cheating in a test

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Both Paul Chan (right) and Frieda Hui (left) signed the emails. Photo: Dickson Lee

Published: 5:47pm, 21 Aug 2017Updated: 8:07pm, 21 Aug 2017

Hong Kong’s finance chief and his wife found themselves back in a legal battle on Monday over whether they recklessly defamed two schoolchildren, after the city’s top court gave the green light to the twins and their father to pursue a last-ditch appeal.

That decision brought the latest twist in a legal tussle what began in 2012, and that stems from emails sent a year earlier in which Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po’s wife Frieda Hui Po-ming accused Carl Lu’s children of cheating in a test.

The Court of Final Appeal gave Lu and the two former Chinese International School pupils Jonathan and Caitlin Lu permission to appeal against the Court of Appeal ruling that Chan and Hui were not liable for defaming the twins.

Carl Lu arrives at court with his wife last year. Photo: Sam Tsang

Andrew Caldecott QC, for the Lus, told the top court on Monday that Hui was reckless when she sent six emails to the school and about 10 parents accusing the twins, who were classmates of her daughter, of cheating. During the earlier trial the court heard Hui continued to send the allegedly libellous emails, co-signed by her husband, despite the school telling her it had found no evidence that the pair had cheated.

Hui sent the emails between December 1 and 16, 2011 after hearing the cheating rumours from her daughter, Joyce.

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