The pro-democracy camp in Legco has launched a crowdfunding bid to hire their own lawyers for another legal opinion regarding the deadlock in Legco's House Committee. This comes after external legal advice released on Monday said former House Committee chairwoman Starry Lee Wai-king has the authority to take control of the proceedings being as no new chair has been elected since Legco came back after the summer break last year. Speaking to reporters outside Legco in the morning today, Civic Party lawmaker Tanya Chan said that this legal advice was questionable, and that her camp is trying to raise HK$240,000 to hire outside lawyers of their own. Chan, who is the camp's convenor, said Legco's 22 pro-democracy lawmakers will chip in HK$100,000 themselves, and they hope to get their own legal advice by Friday when the next House Committee meeting takes place. Chan said she was puzzled why the Chief Executive could read out word for word the new external legal advice, saying it was a confidential document among lawmakers.

Source: The Standard May 05, 2020 08:57 UTC