Top court to get first female judge

Macau will have the first ever female judge in its top court, after the independent committee for the nomination of judges selected a new member of the Court of Final Appeal (TUI) to replace Chu Kin, who passed away last month.
According to Rádio Macau the committee has recommended the appointment of the current deputy prosecutor of the Public Prosecutions Office, Song Man Lei, to the Chief Executive.
The final decision will belong to Fernando Chui Sai On. If the head of the MSAR accepts the committee’s suggestion then she will become the first female judge at the TUI.
There has never previously been a female judge in the old Macau top court, which was created in 1993 and replaced by TUI after the handover.
Lei graduated in mainland China and undertook a Portuguese language and culture course in Portugal’s capital Lisbon. She was part of the group of first local magistrates to be nominated in Macau. In the mid-1990s Lei completed the course for judicial officer and then embraced the career of magistrate.
With the handover, in December 1999, she was appointed prosecutor by the former Chief Executive Edmund Ho Hau Wah, upon a recommendation of the MSAR Prosecutor General, Ho Chio Meng.
Lei is fluent in Portuguese and English as well and is considered by several sources from the legal sector contacted by Rádio Macau as the best person for the job.
Judge Chu Kin passed away last month at the age of 42 after three months in an intensive care unit because of “serious injuries” as a result of a car accident in Guangdong province last August.
The independent committee for the nomination of judges was expected to pick the next name in the judicial hierarchy, Lai Kin Hong, who has been the Court of Second Instance (TSI) president since the it was established, directly following the handover.
Chu Kin’s accident had left TUI temporarily with only two judges, President Sam Hou Fai and Viriato Manuel Pinheiro de Lima. A TSI judge – mostly president Lai Kin Hong – had been assisting the two TUI judges on a case-to-case basis.