Hong Kong man’s legal fight over late husband’s funeral faces fresh challenge
- Henry Li Yik-ho was granted leave in March to apply for judicial review, after he was denied the right to identify the body of his spouse
- But on Wednesday, the Department of Justice made a rare application for the High Court to overturn the permission granted
The court had granted Henry Li Yik-ho leave to apply for judicial review in March, soon after he launched the bid to challenge the Forensic Pathology Service’s decision not to let him identify the body of his spouse, Edgar Ng Hon-lam, at the Fu Shan Public Mortuary on December 9 last year.
Li had recalled a forensic pathologist telling him he needed authorisation to be the “official identifier” responsible for all after-death arrangements with various government departments, as his marriage was not recognised in Hong Kong. The couple married in Britain four years ago.
But on Wednesday, senior assistant law officer William Liu Kwun-wa submitted there had been a “miscommunication” as the pathologist was only asking if Ng’s mother would agree to, not authorise, Li’s identification.
Liu further argued that the court should set aside the leave granted because the judicial review application was based on a fundamental “misapprehension” of government policy and in part academic when the relevant authorities had already handled most of the after-death matters – which included body identification, collection and cremation – with the applicant stated as the deceased’s spouse or husband.
“There was no such policy of discriminating same-sex couples as alleged,” Liu said. “There is no discrimination of the applicant at all.”
