Hong Kong’s disqualified localist pair will have to return HK$930,000 each, Legco president says

Hong Kong’s legislature has hit two recently disqualified localist lawmakers with a bill for HK$930,000 each, forcing them to repay the salaries and costs they claimed in advance.

Legislative Council president Andrew Leung Kwan-yuen announced the move on Thursday to further penalise Youngspiration’s Sixtus Baggio Leung Chung-hang and Yau Wai-ching after the High Court stripped them of their seats for not taking their oaths properly last month.

The decision by the Legco Commission came after a three-hour closed-door meeting on Thursday afternoon. It was not a un­animous call by the commission’s nine pro-establishment and four pan-democrat members.

Andrew Leung said the commission had relied on the National People’s Congress ruling on November 7, which stated that “no corresponding powers and functions shall be exercised and no corresponding entitlements shall be enjoyed by anyone who fails to lawfully and validly take their oath”.

“The High Court did not rule on how we should handle their expenses … so we relied on the NPC’s ruling in making our decision,” Leung said.