Two pan-democrat lawmakers to be investigated over donations
Legco committee launches investigations into two pan-democrats over media tycoon's cash and alleged breaches of rules on declaration
A Legislative Council committee is to investigate two pan-democratic lawmakers who allegedly accepted donations from media tycoon Jimmy Lai Chee-ying without declaring them.
The decision follows months of initial inquiries into the conduct of five pan-democrats after 900 files concerning the founder's political donations were leaked to media in July last year.
Speaking after Wednesday's meeting of Legco's committee on members' interests, chairman Ip Kwok-him said separate investigations would be launched into the Labour Party's Lee Cheuk-yan and "Long Hair" Leung Kwok-hung of the League of Social Democrats.
"The committee has decided the complaints against Lee and Leung would proceed to the stage of investigation," Ip said. It is the first time the committee has launched such a probe relating to alleged breaches of the rules on declaration of interests.
While the committee has special powers to summon witnesses and request documents, Ip declined to comment on who might be called to give evidence or when the investigation would be concluded.
However, he added that although the inquiry would be conducted behind closed doors "in principle", the lawmakers involved could request an open-door inquiry.
Lee and Leung were accused of accepting donations of HK$1.5 million and HK$500,000, respectively, from Lai in 2013 without declaring them to Legco.
Lee said the donation was made to his party - which did not require declaration - but conceded he should have transferred the money from his personal bank account to the party's account earlier.
While the committee decided earlier not to pursue inquiries into the Civic Party's Alan Leong Kah-kit and Claudia Mo Man-ching, the seven-member committee was divided on whether to investigate the Democratic Party's James To Kun-sun, who denied accepting HK$500,000 from Lai in 2012 via the tycoon's top aide Mark Simon.
The committee decided to end its inquiry into To but will submit a report on the case to the general council.
Following the decision, Lee said he would cooperate with the committee's investigation "so that it can clear my name".
Leung said: "I have told everything to the committee. Now just let them decide how to investigate further."
Separately, Lee said pan-democratic lawmakers would issue another challenge to Leung Chun-ying for a debate on political reform when he attends the regular question-and-answer-session at the Legislative Council today.
The chief executive has so far rejected a televised debate.
