Disqualified legislative councilor Leung Kwok-hung made headlines again earlier this week after he accused the special administrative region government and local courts of collaborating in handing down harsh prison sentences to "peaceful protesters" at some recent trials. He was referring in particular to the most recent case in which 13 participants who stormed the Legislative Council Complex during a violent protest in 2014 against the government's plan for housing development in northeast New Territories and caused damage to the building, in addition to hurting security guards and police officers. The public widely applauded the ruling despite words of defiance from some opposition members.

Leung was one of the most prominent figures in that protest but did not join the violent acts. However, he has been supporting those defendants since the trial began, and was critical of the court and the government as always. We are not surprised at all that he went so far away from the truth to attack the Justice Department and Hong Kong courts, because double standards are his and the whole opposition camp's weapon of choice when it comes to defending their own interests. People still remember well that not long ago the camp went all-out pressuring the Justice Department to prosecute those police officers who had erred when handling a rogue protester during the "Occupy Central" campaign. And it is worth noting that Leung had personal reasons to bad-mouth the authorities, because he was found guilty of similar offenses and imprisoned as punishment more than once in the past. And he was recently disqualified as LegCo member for violating the Basic Law and relevant Hong Kong law while taking the LegCo oath in October last year.

Effective rule of law is a cornerstone of Hong Kong's success as the freest market and one of the safest places in the world. The guilty rulings and sentences in a series of cases similar to the one mentioned above are just the latest examples of how capable Hong Kong courts are of serving justice where it is due. As a matter of fact, not only local residents approve the judiciary's performance in these cases, even central authorities took notice and gave compliments. Zhang Xiaoming, director of the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the Hong Kong SAR, spoke highly early this month of Hong Kong's justice system in helping maintain the SAR's stability and long-term prosperity, adding that the central government is pleased to see justice prevail in Hong Kong.

The city's judicial system is not to be intimidated by groundless attacks by ill-motivated politicians such as Leung. But this does not mean people may ignore repeated attempts by the likes of Leung to lay claim on justice by double standards. In view of a Court of Appeal ruling today (Thursday) on former radical student leader Joshua Wong Chi-fung's application to overturn a previous guilty verdict, all members of the public should voice their support for the judiciary in upholding equality before the law.

(HK Edition 08/17/2017 page8)