Fired Hong Kong prosecutor accuses disciplinary hearing of ‘bias’ towards civil service

William Wong lost job and pension rights after email accuses police of lying and another asks colleagues to mark Tiananmen Square crackdown anniversary

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A Hong Kong prosecutor fired for emails that included a call for colleagues to mark the 2020 anniverary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown asks for judicial review. Photo: May Tse

Published: 7:55pm, 7 Jun 2024

A former senior Hong Kong prosecutor has lodged a legal challenge to his dismissal over remarks made in two emails that accused police of lying and invited colleagues to observe the June 4 Tiananmen Square vigil.

William Wong Wa-fun, in a writ made public on Friday, asked the High Court for a judicial review against the civil service’s decision to fire him and strip him of pension entitlements built up over almost 30 years after a disciplinary panel found him guilty of misconduct in July 2023.

The ex-Department of Justice staff member sparked controversy in September 2019 when he alleged in an internal email that police had lied about the motives for high-profile arrests of opposition politicians and activists before anti-government protests on August 31 that year.

He was in the spotlight again in 2020 after he sent another mass email, just hours before the commemoration of the 1989 crackdown, which went ahead despite a ban because of coronavirus restrictions, and weeks before the Beijing-posed national security law came into force.

Wong wrote that he “[wished] we do the same thing” on “the last [June 4] before the enactment of the national security law”.

Wong was suspended in March 2021 after it was alleged he had breached civil service protocols by sending correspondence direct to police chief inspectors working at Eastern Court instead of routing his emails through his supervisor.