Activists launch HK$5 million campaign for Hong Kong lawmakers fighting to save seats

Two co-founders of the Occupy Central democracy movement have launched a campaign to raise at least HK$5 million in legal fees for four pro-democracy lawmakers whom the Hong Kong government is seeking to unseat through a judicial battle.

Edward Yiu Chung-yim, one of the four, revealed he had written to the Legislative Council’s secretariat, asking the legislature to pay their legal fees, which could amount to millions of dollars. But the Legco Commission, dominated by pro-establishment lawmakers, is unlikely to accept his request when they discuss it on January 16.

The other three lawmakers caught in the legal battle are Lau Siu-lai, Nathan Law Kwun-chung and “Long Hair” Leung Kwok-hung.

Chan Kin-man said on Thursday he was setting up the Justice Defence Fund with another Occupy co-founder, the Reverend Chu Yiu-ming, and a former secretary general of the Civic Party, Joseph Cheng Yu-shek, to raise funds for the four.

“The challenge of their status launched by Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying is a violation of the authority of Legco,” Chan, a sociologist at Chinese University, said.

“While the C.Y. Leung administration is supported by public funds, the four legislators will have to bear the costs themselves. If they lose their cases, they may become bankrupt … the asymmetry of the legal battle constitutes an injustice.”