Pressure is on Leung Chun-ying to explain illegal home structures
Albert Ho's counsel confirms legal appeal against Leung's election dropped, putting pressure on him to account for illegal structures
Pressure mounted on the chief executive yesterday to explain unauthorised structures found at his home on The Peak, after lawmaker Albert Ho Chun-yan formally withdrew his legal challenge to Leung Chun-ying's election in March.
Speaking before an Executive Council meeting, Leung said his lawyer nad received a letter from Ho's counsel on Monday, telling him of Ho's decision.
"I am happy that Ho has finally replied to our letter, five days after [we asked him to drop the appeal]," Leung said. "In the letter, he mentioned some conditions, and some pending matters for dismissal, subject to mutual agreement."
Ho lost his legal battle to have the election result annulled in the Court of Final Appeal. But since he had also tried to take the case to the Court of Appeal, Leung had demanded Ho formally withdraw his appeal to that court.
Leung's lawyer sent Ho a letter yesterday say Leung had agreed to Ho's condition that they split the costs of the legal proceedings.
In response, Ho said Leung "has no more excuse to procrastinate". But Ho was still worried Leung could use the unsettled legal costs as a reason to further postpone coming clean. "If he is trying to magnify something trivial to … divert attention, it is highly inappropriate," Ho said
Since Ho lost the case last week, Leung has been facing pressure from lawmakers across the political spectrum to explain the unauthorised structures found at his homes.
