Hong Kong prosecutor suspended from work for backing democracy protests: report
A senior government prosecutor in Hong Kong has been suspended from his duties in the wake of allegations by Beijing-loyal groups that he supports pro-democracy demonstrations, a news report says.
The action against William Wong, a senior prosecutor posted by the government’s Department of Justice to the Eastern Magistrates’ Courts, was first reported on Wednesday by pro-Beijing newspaper Sing Tao Daily, which also said he had been placed under investigation.
Wong received a notice last Friday about his suspension starting Monday, according to people with knowledge of the matter. He was given no time to defend himself and his personal belongings were still in his office room at the court, the sources told Apple Daily.
Wong would be retiring in one to two years and felt a little sad, although he knew well “what it is all about,” they said.
The government prosecutor has been a frequent target of Hong Kong’s pro-Beijing newspapers since anti-extradition bill protests broke out in June 2019.
Headline Daily, a free newspaper under the media company Sing Tao, earlier accused Wong of filing complaints during the protests to Secretary for Justice Teresa Cheng and then director of public prosecutions David Leung. Wong reportedly said that “the police’s blatant lies are damaging the judicial system.”
Last year, Headline Daily named Wong as the person behind an internal email circulated in the justice department that asked all prosecutors to join an annual vigil that June to commemorate victims of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown.
Wong’s response at the time was that Headline Daily had failed to accurately report on the email content.
Beijing loyalist and lawmaker Holden Chow, who earlier called for an investigation into the email, on Wednesday applauded Wong’s suspension and said the department was “putting things right.”
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