Justice Secretary to apply for inquest into model?s death

Updated at 6.52pm: New Secretary for Justice Wong Yan-lung has decided to apply to the Court of First Instance for an order that an inquest be held into the death of late model Annie Pang Chor-ying, a spokesman said on Friday.

Pang?s dismembered skeleton was found in a flat belonging to the brother of then-Chief Secretary Anson Chan Fang On-sang.

?In coming to the decision, the Secretary for Justice has considered all police reports, witness statements, relevant legislation and the reasons of the coroner,? the spokesman from the Department of Justice said. ?The Secretary for Justice considers that it would be in the public interest for the death of Ms Pang to be investigated by the coroner, and that the appropriate vehicle for achieving this is an inquest.

?However, as a coroner has decided not to hold an inquest, it is considered that the most appropriate course of action at this stage is to invite the Court of First Instance to direct that an inquest be held,? the spokesman said. Under section 20, the Court of First Instance can order that an inquest be held if the Court is satisfied the coroner had failed to hold an inquest which ought to have been held.

Pang?s skeleton was discovered on October 7, 1999, in John Fang Meng-sang?s Yau Ma Tei flat after she had been reported missing four years earlier.

Syringes, medicine and drugs, including heroin, were also found in the 380 square foot apartment along with the skeleton which had traces of heroin in its hair. A gold tooth and two digit bones were missing from the body.