LEADING liberals Martin Lee Chu-ming and Szeto Wah yesterday went ahead with legal action against former Appeal Court judge Simon Li Fook-sean for alleged libel. Writs were served on Mr Li's solicitors yesterday, alleging he had damaged their character and reputation by saying they had appealed to Hongkong people to make a run on mainland-funded banks after the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. The writ said the ''defamatory words were untrue'' as the pair had at no time appealed to the public to withdraw funds from Chinese banks. Instead, the plaintiff appealed to the public to refrain from doing so after an appeal to cause a run on Chinese banks had been made by others, it said. The ''defamatory words'' meant the pair intended to cause financial harm to the Chinese banks without due regard to the economic stability and prosperity of Hongkong, the writ added. The pair are claiming damages, costs and an injunction restraining Mr Li among others from further publishing the remarks or any similar remarks. The pair also instructed their solicitors, Deacons, to send a letter to the pro-China newspaper Ta Kung Pao for carrying a commentary on the same subject last Saturday. The writ said Mr Li ''falsely and maliciously spoke'' to some reporters defamatory words about the pair in a manner ''calculated to create a climate of opinion such as to prejudice the continuation of the plaintiff and/or justify his disqualification as a Legislative Councillor after 1997 should the plaintiff be re-elected as such in 1995''. Mr Li has two weeks to acknowledge the service of the writ and another two weeks to serve his defence. Mr Lee said it was not their intention to single out Ta Kung Pao but it was the only newspaper they had found that insisted he and Mr Szeto had falsified their defence.