Hong Kong’s extradition bill could pass next week as Legislative Council President Andrew Leung limits debate time
- Pan-democrats furious as President Andrew Leung sets aside 61 hours to debate bill, meaning it could be passed by June 20
- Leung says time was limited partly because Security Bureau stressed urgency of the amendment
Hong Kong’s contentious extradition amendment could now be passed as soon as next Thursday, after the legislature’s chief said on Tuesday that only 61 hours would be allocated to scrutinise the bill.
Andrew Leung Kwan-yuen, the president of the Legislative Council, made the announcement two days after more than 1 million Hongkongers, according to some estimates, took to streets to protest against the bill.
The Legco Commission, which is also chaired by Leung, decided on Monday to close down a protest zone outside the Legco building and limit access to the complex when a security alert is in force.
Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor and her administration have spent months pushing for the amendment, which would allow the case-by-case transfer of criminal suspects to jurisdictions with which the city does not have an extradition arrangement, including the mainland.
Pan-democratics have called for the bill to be shelved. They expected Leung to allow sufficient time for lawmakers to debate the bill before the legislature’s summer recess starts in mid-July.