Hong Kong officials widen legal attack on fledgling independence movement

[HONG KONG] Hong Kong's leaders on Friday widened their legal fight against the city's fledgling independence movement, targeting four more lawmakers over oaths taken at a legislative council swearing-in ceremony in October.

Chief Executive Leung Chun Ying and Justice Secretary Rimsky Yuen began the action two days after a pair of barred lawmakers, Baggio Leung and Yau Wai Ching, lost a legal appeal over their disqualification, government radio station RTHK reported.

Beijing's Communist Party leaders are alarmed about the growing appeal of independence and self-determination ideas in the former British colony, which returned to Chinese rule in 1997 under a "one country, two systems" formula.

The formula allows wide-ranging freedoms in Hong Kong, a separate legal system and specifies universal suffrage as an eventual goal.

The latest move came after Beijing staged a rare interpretation of Hong Kong's mini-constitution in early November to effectively bar democratically-elected Ms Leung and Mr Yau from taking office there.

Mr Lau and Ms Leung pledged allegiance to the "Hong Kong nation" and displayed a banner declaring "Hong Kong is not China" during a swearing-in ceremony for the Legislative Council in October.

While their oaths were aborted before they were disqualified, the latest action targets lawmakers who have already taken office.

They include veteran lawmaker and activist Leung Kwok Hung, known across the city as "Long-hair". The others are younger lawmakers Lau Siu Lai, Edward Yiu and Nathan Law, RTHK reported.

The government is challenging the actions of the legislature's president, Andrew Leung, to accept, or allow them to re-take, their oaths.

Senior democratic figures are warning of a popular backlash against Chief Executive Leung, whom they accuse of using the independence issue to wage a legal "coup" against long-standing democratic forces, on behalf of Beijing.

Mr Leung's term ends next year but he has yet to confirm he will stand for re-election in March by a panel of 1,200 largely pro-establishment community figures.

REUTERS