Citizen's arrests sought for US sanctions five

Michael Shum

Lawyer Jimmy Siu See-kong has filed a writ with the high court, asking for an order to allow anyone in Hong Kong to be able to arrest the five US congressmen for perverting the course of justice by pushing for sanctions against 49 officials, judges and prosecutors here.

Siu, in the writ filed through his company Sino Moral on Friday, seeks an order declaring the five were also in contempt of court.

"The Hong Kong Sanctions Act has exerted serious and unprovoked pressure on Hong Kong's judicial system, which is sufficient to constitute perverting the course of justice and contempt of court," Sino Moral said.

It is asking for an order that gives everyone in Hong Kong the power to arrest the five, according to the writ.

The five bipartisan congressmen are Young Kim, Jim McGovern, John Curtis, Dan Sullivan and Jeff Merkley.

They tabled the sanctions bill in the US House of Representatives and the Senate on November 1.

The bill was moved in the House by Kim, a Republican, and seconded by her party colleague Curtis and Democrat McGovern from Massachusetts.

The bill was moved in the Senate by Republican Sullivan and seconded by Democrat Merkley.

The 49 targeted include Secretary for Justice Paul Lam Ting-kwok, secretary general of the Committee for Safeguarding National Security Sonny Au Chi-kwong, police chief Raymond Siu Chak-yee, as well as all but two of the national security judges, including chief justice Andrew Cheung Kui-nung.

Sino Moral also filed a writ in late 2021, arguing it has jurisdiction to try Chan Tong-kai, who was 19 at that time and had admitted upon his return to killing his 20-year-old girlfriend Amber Poon Hiu-wing in Taiwan.

It also filed a writ in 2018, arguing that then University of Hong Kong law professor Benny Tai Yiu-ting should be treated as having forfeited his Chinese nationality when he made "Hong Kong independence" remarks and therefore the Immigration Department should confiscate his passport.

Sino Moral is a company operated under the name of the Party for Civic Rights and Livelihood of the People of Hong Kong, founded in 2007.

It is chaired by Siu and has lost every election it took part in - the 2007 Legislative Council by-election, the Legco election in 2008, the Legco election in 2012 and the district council election in 2015.