Principal, teacher convicted

A school principal and a Turkish man he illegally hired as an English teacher were convicted and fined by a magistrate yesterday.

Yu Chi-wan, 50, head of the Islamic Kasim Tuet Memorial College in Chai Wan, was fined $8,000 for employing Huseyin Erdal Yerlikaya, 38, who did not have a work visa.

Yerlikaya, who had taught English in Turkey, the United States and on the mainland, was fined $4,000 for breaching his conditions of stay by working as a temporary teacher at the school in September 1999 and as a part-time tutor between July and October 1999.

Yu, who has headed the school since 1994, denied one count of aiding and abetting Yerlikaya's breach of condition of stay. Yerlikaya pleaded not guilty to two counts of breaching his condition of stay.

Kowloon City Court heard Yu, 50, also a member of the 800-strong Election Committee to select the Chief Executive, had applied to the Education Department to register Yerlikaya as a temporary teacher between September 1999 and March 2000. But this application was withdrawn.

Yu's lawyer, Kevin Egan, said the case was the result of an administrative error by the school.