From left: Pro-democracy lawmakers Edward Yiu, Nathan Law, Leung Kwok-hung and Lau Siu-lai. Photo: Lau Siu -lai@Facebook
From left: Pro-democracy lawmakers Edward Yiu, Nathan Law, Leung Kwok-hung and Lau Siu-lai. Photo: Lau Siu -lai@Facebook

Four pro-democracy lawmakers – Nathan Law, Leung Kwok-hung, Lau Siu-lai and Edward Yiu – were disqualified from their positions in the Hong Kong Legislative Council by a ruling issued by the High Court on Friday.

According to the ruling, the four legislators failed to take their oaths correctly during the Legco swearing-in ceremony last October 12, RTHK reported.

During the ceremony, Leung, nicknamed Long Hair, of the League of Social Democrats, chanted slogans ahead of his speech and was holding a yellow umbrella, a symbol of the 2014 Occupy movement.

The Demosisto party’s Law raised the pitch of his voice while reading the words “People’s Republic of China” as if he were raising a question. Lau, from Democracy Groundwork, read her oath extremely slowly, while Yim added a line about fighting for genuine universal suffrage to his oath.

The court said that through their actions, the four people failed to fulfill the requirements of “dignity” and “respect” during the oath-taking process.

The four said they would file an appeal against the court’s ruling, which stripped the pro-democracy camp of a key Legco veto power as a result. There now are 14 pan-democrats in geographical constituencies, compared with 16 pro-establishment lawmakers.

The court case was initiated by former chief executive Leung Chun-ying last December, following a similar one that disqualified Youngspiration’s Sixtus Leung and Yau Wai-ching from being Legco members last November.

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