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Hong Kong justice minister Rimsky Yuen expected to step down in January

He will resume private practice at one of city’s largest law firms next year

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Secretary for Justice Rimsky Yuen Kwok-keung at a press conference on the co-location arrangement for the express rail link. Photo: Sam Tsang
Kimmy Chung

Secretary for Justice Rimsky Yuen Kwok-keung is expected to resign in January to resume his private practice in a top barrister’s chamber in the heart of the city, the Post has learned.

A source said Yuen was expected to leave the government after the mainland’s top legislative body, the National People’s Congress Standing Committee, endorsed the controversial joint checkpoint arrangement for the high-speed rail link to Guangzhou in December.
Since Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor won the city’s top job in March, it had been widely reported that Yuen – who has served in the post since July 2012 – was determined to leave after his five-year term expired.
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But he agreed to serve Lam’s administration to help sort out the joint checkpoint arrangement, which has been criticised by pan-democrats for undermining the city’s autonomy by leasing part of the rail link’s terminus in West Kowloon to the mainland and allowing officers from across the border to exercise almost full jurisdiction there.

Hong Kong rail checkpoint must remain on the right legal track

The Standing Committee’s approval is the second part of a three-step process towards implementing the so-called “co-location” arrangement, following the signing of the relevant agreement between Hong Kong and Guangdong last Saturday. Local legislation will be the last step.

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Ronny Tong Ka-wah, a senior counsel at Temple Chambers – one of the largest law firms in Hong Kong – confirmed to the Post that Yuen had already rented a room in the chamber, where extension and renovation work had just been completed.

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