DoJ files legal advice to police on seven officers assault case; Joshua Wong seeks JR on LegCo election age threshold.
Photo: Chris Lusher
Government & LegCo
DoJ: Legal advice over seven cops in alleged assault filed to police
– The Department of Justice had offered legal advice (ch) to police concerning seven officers who allegedly beat up an Occupy protester, according to a report byMing Pao
– If the DoJ had made its decision to prosecute the officers, the police would follow so as early as this week
– The Force, however, was yet to make an official response on another assault case, substantiated by the police watchdog, of a superintendent who assaulted Occupy protesters with his baton – ‘as extension of his arm’
Pan-dem lawmakers to move two motions on lead-in-water saga under LegCo (Powers and Privileges) Ordinance
– Gary Fan of Neo Democrats and Cyd Ho of the Labour Party will move in Wednesday’s LegCo meeting separate motions to invoke the LegCo’s special power under the Legislative Council (Powers and Privileges) Ordinance to investigate the lead-in-water scandal while Kwok Ka-ki of the Civic Party will move one on urging the Government to legislate for drinking-water safety
– Commercial (Second) sector lawmaker Martin Liao, meanwhile, will move a motion on seizing the opportunities brought about by the ‘New Silk Road Belt’
Government to refine legislative proposals for implementation of AEOI in Hong Kong
– The Government announced major changes in three areas regarding implementing the new international standard on Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information in Tax Matters (AEOI)
– Refinements included a) clarifying a) the definitions of financial institutions (FIs), non-reporting FIs and exempted accounts; b) providing a legal basis for FIs to cover account holders with other tax residences; and c) confining penalties to employee who have “caused or permitted the FIs to provide incorrect return in a willful manner”
– Hong Kong pledged to commencing the first information exchanges with appropriate partners by the end of 2018
– Meanwhile, the Commercial Crime Bureau reportedly received 282 money laundering cases in the first half of 2015, a 79% jump on a year-on-year basis
Political (General)
Joshua Wong seeks judicial review to lower LegCo election age threshold; will run if successful
– Student leader Joshua Wong filed a judicial review demanding the Court to lower the age threshold for LegCo candidates from 21 to 18
– The Scholarism convenor said he would consider running in next year’s LegCo elections if the Court makes a timely judgement in his favour
– The application for judicial review will be headed by Senior Counsel Anson Wong Man-kit and Progressive Lawyers Group convenor, barrister Wilson Leung Wun Shun
Pan-dems warn of ‘pseudo-yellow ribbon’ candidates in DC elections
– At least eight ‘pseudo-yellow ribbon‘ candidates are running for the upcoming district council elections, pan-dems reported with suspicion that these candidates are running to take votes from them
– The pseudo democrats were said to be running in districts in which the League of Social Democrats or the Democratic Party narrowly won or lost in the last elections
– Meanwhile, Third Side (ch), led by former democrats Nelson Wong and Tik Chi-yuen, is fielding five candidates to challenge the pro-est camp with Wong himself running in the Fanling South
New Lingnan University Council member: No need to vow to protect institutional autonomy since there is no interference
– Pro-Beijing solicitor Junius Ho, who was recently appointed to the Lingnan University Council by CY Leung, said he did not see the need to make any promise on safeguarding academic freedom institutional autonomy (ch) since there was no interference with university affairs
– At a Commercial Radio programme, President of the Lingnan University Students’ Union Lau Chun-lam blasted Ho for ‘five sins’, of which Ho denied and said Lau’s accusations could have constituted a libel
– While the host asked whether Ho’s earlier remark on students having “early psychosis” for opposing the appointment would constituted a libel as well, Ho said that was only a “description”
