Hong Kong Customs mulls firing 3 detained officers
After Hong Kong Customs authorities planned to remove three officers for their suspected violation of law, analysts said the move could help improve the civil servants’ quality and rule out collusion between anti-government forces in Hong Kong and their external sponsors.
The three officers were arrested for allegedly participating in an illegal gathering on July 1, Sing Tao Daily reported Thursday.
The three officers, two males and one female, were suspended after the arrest. The three had been in their posts for less than three years, which means that they were still in their probationary period.
They were among the 370 people arrested for an illegal gathering on July 1. These protesters set fire on the road and smashed public facilities and shops, media reported.
Hermes Tang Yi-hoi, the Commissioner of Customs and Excise, is considering removing them according to management regulations on civil servants, Sing Tao Daily reported.
Tang will not make the decision to fire them until the police submit their report on the three, the Sing Tao Daily report said, citing an anonymous source.
Tang is one of the members of the Committee for Safeguarding National Security of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.
The move will provide the basis for the Hong Kong Customs to safeguard national security as it helps to remove those lacking loyalty to the regional government from the system, experts said.
The three Customs officers have shown in their behavior that they would not uphold the Basic Law or be loyal to the Hong Kong regional government, as related laws require of civil servants, so they are no longer suitable to stay in their current posts, Tian Feilong, an associate professor of law at Beihang University in Beijing, told the Global Times.
Tian noted that Customs and immigration departments were used by anti-government forces in Hong Kong to collude with external forces and receive material support from the latter. The loyalty and political neutrality of Hong Kong civil servants should be the basis for the two systems to safeguard national security.
It is not uncommon to see Hong Kong civil servants participating in illegal protests since last year. According to the national security law for Hong Kong that took effect on July 1, a civil servant shall be removed from the post once convicted of an offense endangering national security.