The Legislative Council’s Secretariat has given an ultimatum to ousted lawmakers Baggio Leung and Yau Wai-ching, demanding they repay a total of HKD1.86 million (about $238,000) in salaries and allowances in two weeks after the duo lost their final bid to have their seats in the Council reinstated last Friday.
The Secretariat on Tuesday confirmed that it had informed the duo, both part of the student activist-driven Youngspiration party, via both email and physical letters . If Leung and Yau fail to pay back the money on or before the Sept. 12 deadline, the Legislative Council (LegCo) says it is prepared to take legal action. However, the young activists said they did not have the means to pay and were on the verge of bankruptcy.
Speaking to Apple Daily, Yau said, “I didn’t have the money for the appeal when I did it. Now I need to pay another HKD900 thousand. I wouldn’t possibly have the money all of a sudden”.
The Court of Final Appeal’s decision to reject the disqualified lawmakers’ final bid to return to the LegCo has left them with an enormous HKD12 million bill in legal fees on top of the salaries they had been receiving since their election last year, according to SCMP.
Local courts disqualified Leung and Yau after mainland authorities’ interpretation of the Basic Law effectively banned them from swearing in again after they inserted words deemed derogatory to the Chinese government during the oath-taking ceremony.
Yau said they plan to ask for further justifications for the Secretariat’s decision as they see no grounds for the LegCo to take legal action.
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