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Hong Kong lawmakers lose legal battle over oaths
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Newly elected Hong Kong lawmakers Yau Wai-ching (right) and Sixtus Leung (left) are surrounded by photographers at legislature council in Hong Kong, Oct. 26, 2016. (AP/Vincent Yu)
T
wo newly elected Hong Kong separatist lawmakers who used anti-China insults when being sworn in were disqualified from taking office in a court decision Tuesday.
A Hong Kong High Court judge ruled that Sixtus Leung and Yau Wai-Ching of the Youngspiration party violated a section of the semiautonomous Chinese city's constitution, the Basic Law, as well as laws covering oaths taken by officials.
The judge sided with Hong Kong's leader, Chief Executive Leung Chun-Ying, and Justice Secretary Rimsky Yuen, who filed a legal challenge aimed at preventing the two lawmakers from taking their seats after they distorted their oaths last month.
Their provocative tactics also included displaying a flag that said "Hong Kong is Not China." Yau inserted a curse word into her pledge while Leung crossed his fingers.
Beijing responded by handing down its own interpretation of the Basic Law, circumventing Hong Kong's courts and raising fears that the city's wide autonomy and independent judiciary under Chinese rule were being undermined.
