Song Man Lei has formally replaced chief executive (CE)-designate Sam Hou Fai as president of Macao’s highest court, according to an order issued last Friday by outgoing CE Ho Iat Seng.
The appointment makes her the first female to head the Court of Final Appeal (known by its Portuguese initials TUI). She started her three-year term on Monday.
Local media reports note that Song is only the second person to head TUI, which had been led by Sam since its establishment in 1999. Sam resigned from the position in August to run as the sole candidate in the election for the SAR’s next chief executive.
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While the court had three judges until Sam’s resignation, it currently has just two: Song and José Maria Dias Azedo. Song had been its acting president since September.
She has been a TUI judge since 2012. Before that, she was Macao’s first female deputy prosecutor of the Public Prosecutions Office. In 2017, she sentenced ex-prosecutor general Ho Chio Meng to 21 years in prison on charges of fraud, money laundering, and criminal association.
According to Article 88 of Macao’s Basic Law, the president of the Court of Final Appeal must be both a Chinese citizen and a permanent resident of the SAR.
