HONG KONG • A former Hong Kong lawmaker known for his long hair, Che Guevara T-shirts and colourful protest stunts failed yesterday to overturn a ban on his standing for the city's legislature.
Mr Leung Kwok Hung - known by the nickname "Long Hair" - was one of four lawmakers disqualified in 2017 for their antics during their swearing-in oaths to reflect their frustrations with Beijing's increased political control over the city.
One lawmaker quoted Mahatma Gandhi, while another deliberately read her oath at a snail's pace.
Mr Leung, 62, read his oath properly, but held aloft a yellow umbrella - symbolising his support for the city's pro-democracy protest movement.
The would-be lawmakers' antics helped spark an unprecedented legal intervention from Beijing, demanding that oaths be taken in a "solemn and sincere" manner.
Mr Leung was the only one of the four to contest the disqualification, but his appeal was thrown out by the Court of Appeal yesterday, which said the original ruling was "plainly right".
"It comes as no surprise, but it is unreasonable," Mr Leung told reporters outside the court after the judgment was handed down.
Beijing's intervention was a massive blow for the city's beleaguered democracy movement because it meant the balance of power in the partially elected legislature swung further to the pro-China camp and crippled its ability to veto Bills.
It also highlighted Beijing's role as the ultimate arbiter of Hong Kong's mini-Constitution, called the Basic Law.
Under the handover agreement signed with Britain, Hong Kong boasts liberties unseen on the mainland, including freedom of speech and an independent judiciary.
But the final arbiter of the Basic Law remains China's top legislative body, the National People's Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC).
It has made only five interpretations of the Basic Law since the 1997 handover, but its ruling on the oath-swearing ceremony was the first time it made a direct intervention in how Hong Kong's legislature can operate.
Mr Leung, who won more than 35,000 votes during Hong Kong's 2016 legislative elections, hit out at the NPCSC yesterday.
"They were not elected by the Chinese people, they were not elected by the Hong Kong citizens, and they got every authority to destroy the electoral result of Hong Kong," he said.
Mr Leung's activism has landed him in jail several times.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE