Justice chief Teresa Cheng ‘should explain how involved she was’ in decision not to charge former Hong Kong leader Leung Chun-ying, pro-government legislator says

Hong Kong’s justice chief should explain her level of involvement in the decision not to prosecute the city’s former leader Leung Chun-ying over a corruption complaint, a pro-government legislator urged on Saturday.

The appeal by Paul Tse Wai-chun came the same day as the convenor of Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor’s cabinet also said the government still had explaining to do.

A day earlier, Lam revealed Secretary for Justice Teresa Cheng Yeuk-wah was part of the decision – an involvement the Department of Justice repeatedly declined to confirm last week.

Lam backed Cheng and her department’s decision not to get outside legal advice on the case of Leung’s undeclared multimillion-dollar payout from an engineering company, saying the justice chief did not have any conflict of interest.

But Tse, a solicitor, said the government needed to give a more detailed explanation. He noted that Cheng’s predecessor, Rimsky Yuen Kwok-keung, delegated handling of the case to the city’s top prosecutor when it began four years ago, and added that Lam’s understanding of the concept of conflict of interest was too narrow.

Speaking to RTHK on Saturday, Tse referred to a statement by the department on October 9, 2014, that Yuen delegated the handling of Leung’s case to Director of Public Prosecutions Keith Yeung Ka-hung, “to avoid any possible perception of bias, partiality or improper influence”.