During the past few weeks, Hong Kong has been plagued by a number of demonstrations mostly conducted near or at public and government facilities; some have even resorted to violence and destruction of facilities to send their message across to the Hong Kong government.
These related series of events took place after Hong Kong’s Chief Executive Carrie Lam and her Cabinet members floated their plans to push the Fugitive Bill Work which looks to amend the country’s extradition laws to be used in criminal cases involving foreign nationals according to the provision of their respective laws in their homeland – something that did not fare well among nationals, claiming that the bill will further weaken Hong Kong’s legislative identity behind China’s autocratic justice system.
Hong Kong Ends Fugitive Bill Work to Instate Peace and Order: CE
In response to this, the Government has put a stop to the fugitive law amendment exercise, so the Fugitive Offenders & Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Legislation (Amendment) Bill 2019 is “dead,” claimed Chief Executive Carrie Lam, as shared in a report by news.gov.hk.
The Chief Executive issued the statement ahead of an Executive Council meeting on Tuesday (July 9), saying the cause of recent grievances and confrontations in society was the Government’s bid to amend the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance.
Furthermore, Mrs. Lam also sought to allay concerns that the bill may be resubmitted to the Legislative Council in a bid to push through with the exercise.
In a statement, Mrs. Lam clarified, “I have almost immediately put a stop to the amendment exercise, but there are still lingering doubts about the Government’s sincerity or worries whether the Government will restart the process in the Legislative Council. So I reiterate here, there is no such plan. The bill is dead.”
To address the call for an independent commission of inquiry into the public order events staged against the fugitive bill, Mrs. Lam pointed out that the Independent Police Complaints Council (IPCC) decided last Friday (July 5) to conduct a fact-finding study on the events that took place from June 9 to July 2 to provide the true situation to the public.
Additionally, the Chief Executive noted that the IPCC has taken on board her requests to try and finish its study within six months and submit a report with its recommendations.
Mrs. Lam explained that the report will be openly shared with the public so that everyone will know what has happened during that period.
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