Outgoing Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng has appointed Song Man Lei president of the Court of Final Appeal (TUI) effective from yesterday.
Ho made the appointment in an executive order published in the Official Gazette (BO) yesterday. Ho signed the order on Friday last week.
According to the order, Song’s appointment lasts three years.
Since the establishment of the Macau Special Administrative Region (MSAR) on December 20, 1999, the Court of Final Appeal had been headed for nearly 25 years by Sam Hou Fai until late August this year when he resigned as the MSAR’s top judge so that he could run in the election of the MSAR’s sixth-term chief executive, which was held on October 13 when he, the sole candidate, was elected by garnering 98.99 percent of the 398 votes cast by the 400-member Chief Executive Election Committee.
Including Sam, the Court of Final Appeal had three judges until Sam’s resignation in late August, with the other two being Song Man Lei and José Maria Dias Azedo.
Currently, following Sam’s resignation in late August, the Court of Final Appeal only comprises two judges – Song and Dias Azedo.
Including its president, the Court of Final Appeal shall comprise three judges in its organisational structure, according to the Judicial Organisation Framework Law.
Since Sam’s resignation, Song, owing to her seniority over Dias Azedo in the Court of Final Appeal, had been the court’s acting president.
Yesterday’s executive order means that Song has been formally appointed as the Court of Final Appeal’s president, filling the vacancy of the MSAR’s chief judge left by Sam’s resignation.
According to Article 88 of the MSAR Basic Law, the president of the Court of Final Appeal shall be a Chinese citizen who is a permanent resident of the MSAR.
According to the Judicial Organisation Framework Law, the Court of Final Appeal’s president must be chosen from among its three-judge bench.
Judges in the MSAR, including heads of the top court and of all other courts, are formally appointed by the chief executive.
According to the Judicial Organisation Framework Law, each term of the Court of Final Appeal’s president lasts three years, and can be renewed.
Song has been a judge of the Court of Final Appeal since January 1, 2012. Previously, she was an assistant prosecutor-general.
This file photo shows Song Man Lei, then acting president of the Court of Final Appeal (TUI), addressing the opening ceremony of the new judicial year 2024/2025 at the Macau Cultural Centre (CCM) in Nape on October 17. Song has been formally appointed as Macau’s chief judge effective from yesterday. – Photo: GCS
