Hong Kong names five-member panel to review councillor’s conviction involving 13-year-old

Hong Kong authorities have appointed a five-member supervisory committee to investigate the conviction of Yuen Long district councillor Sei Chun-hing, according to the South China Morning Post. Sei, 39, was convicted of having sex with a 13-year-old girl 15 years ago. The supplied material does not state the charge, sentence or whether an appeal is pending, but says he faces possible imprisonment.

The committee will examine the conviction. The source does not provide the names of its members, the panel’s terms of reference or a timetable for its work. Secretary for Home and Youth Affairs Alice Mak Mei-kuen announced the committee in a statement, according to the report.

No further details from that statement are included in the supplied material. Sei is described as the first elected officeholder to face possible imprisonment for a criminal offence since Beijing’s 2021 electoral overhaul. That overhaul restricted public office to candidates vetted as “patriots”, the source says.

The case therefore involves both a criminal conviction and an official review of an elected councillor’s position. The outcome of the committee’s investigation has not been supplied.