‘We will toughen up and face it,’ Donald Tsang’s wife says, breaking silence as she vows to lodge appeal

The wife of disgraced former chief executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen broke her silence for the first time, expressing her unhappiness and vowing to lodge an appeal.

“It is a very dark day today. We feel very disappointed and upset regarding the ruling from the court today,” Selina Tsang Pou Siu-mei said.

“Over the past five years, we have been subject to a lot of trouble and pressure. We are therefore very sad. But we will toughen up and face it courageously. We will appeal.”

Watch: Selina Tsang speaks after Donald Tsang’s sentencing

She was speaking soon after Tsang was sentenced on Wednesday to 20 months in prison for misconduct, becoming the city’s highest-ranked official to be put behind bars.

Presiding judge Mr Justice Andrew Chan Hing-wai cut the sentence to 20 months from an original 30, giving him credit for a life dedicated to public service, reinforced by a range of letters that “all speak with one voice to his commitment to servicing the people of Hong Kong”.

Tsang’s wife of almost half a century cried after hearing he would be imprisoned.

After visiting her spouse one last time at the court’s basement, where he was detained after the hearing, Selina Tsang said: “We are not saying goodbye. We have got a longer road ahead.”

The city’s former chief also faces a retrial, tentatively set for September, for a bribery charge that the jury failed to reach a verdict on last week.

In an emotional column published on Monday in Chinese-language newspaper AM730, the disgraced former leader of the city had thanked his wife and family for their support over the past five years of “torment” since the Independent Commission Against Corruption first began investigating allegations of bribery and misconduct against him.

“I owe it to my family, especially my wife of almost 50 years, for putting up with the torment of the past five years,” he wrote of Selina Tsang, who had been by his side throughout his trial.

“She always showed me the most understanding smile and held my hand ... Without her company, I have not a clue how I could have made it through the past five years of sorrow and hardship.”