Hong Kong legislature could release files on major controversy from 1996
Legco staff considering request to declassify documents from inquiry into controversial pre-handover departure of immigration chief
Classified records shedding light on the mysterious departure of an immigration chief a year before the 1997 handover may be unsealed ahead of schedule, as Legislative Council staff review the files after receiving requests for disclosure.
Paperwork from the Legco inquiry into the forced retirement of Laurence Leung Ming-yin is among 22 closed records requested under a new access-to-information policy launched by the legislature last year. The files would otherwise be sealed for at least 25 years.
"We are having a page-by-page review of records on Leung. But this case is complicated and it may take some time," Matthew Loo, assistant secretary general of Legco, said.
The case dates to 1996, when Leung was asked to quit as director of immigration after he was found to have failed to declare investments on the mainland and repay a government housing loan.
But a belief persists that Leung's departure had more to do with political considerations than his financial affairs.
A Legco inquiry began later that year, but received confidential information from the government only behind closed doors.
A comment from inquiry chairman Ip Kwok-him, who described an Independent Commission Against Corruption report given to his committee as "shocking", was one of the few insights the public got into what was going on.
