Police are investigating after threatening letters and mock warrant posters offering cash “rewards” for murdering three officials were to several lawmakers, reportedly from Japan.
The posters, in Japanese, offered HK$500 (US$64) to anyone who managed to kill Anne Teng Yu-yan and Amy Chan Yuen-man, two election officials from the Home Affairs Department involved in the recent Legco by-elections earlier this month, according to several reports.
The civil servants, whose offices also received threatening letters, were involved in decisions to disqualify pro-democracy candidates, including Demosisto’s Agnes Chow.
Also targeted was Secretary for Justice Teresa Cheng, whose department recommended the candidates be disqualified. A HK$1,500 (US$191) reward was offered for her murder.
The letters, mainly Chinese, expressed disappointment over the decisions and claimed it was lawmakers “responsibility to assassinate” the officials, claiming they had violated Hong Kong’s Basic Law by disqualifying the candidates, according to the SCMP.
They were sent to at least 18 pro-establishment lawmakers and some pan-democratic representatives, the newspaper reported, adding that police were treating at case as “Criminal intimidation.”
According to The Standard, the letters were signed by a “chairman of the Association of Chinese-holics in Kinki Region” and dated March 18.
In the lead up to the by-election for the Hong Kong Island seat, returning officer Teng ruled Chow should be disqualified because she supported “self-determination” for Hong Kong, which, it was held, was contrary to the Basic Law, Hong Kong’s mini-constitution.
Similarly, returning officer Chan , barred localists James Chan Kwok-keung and Ventus Lau from contesting the New Territories East constituency over earlier remarks about the idea of Hong Kong independence.
Lawmaker Michael Luk of the Federation of Trade Unions, among those who received the letters, slammed them as “almost terrorist behavior”, wrote The Standard.
