CE speaks on Mr Snowden's departure from HK
*******************************************

     Following is the transcript of remarks by the Chief Executive, Mr C Y Leung, at a media session after attending the 27th Graduation Ceremony of the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts today (June 27):

Reporter: Was Hong Kong using a pretext not to hand over Snowden like the US authorities said?

Chief Executive: It wasn't a pretext at all. We were just following the laws of Hong Kong. We were just abiding by a very fundamental principle of procedural justice and procedural fairness. As the Secretary of Justice and the Secretary for Security said publicly in the last couple of days, there were some important facts that we need to determine from the United States authorities, and we were doing exactly that. And so it wasn't any pretext to delay the process.

(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)

Ends/Thursday, June 27, 2013
Issued at HKT 19:14

NNNN