Cooperation between Hong Kong and other places on juridical assistance in criminal matters
Inadequacies in existing legislation
Mr CHAN Chun-ying expressed concern about a case in which a Hong Kong resident alleged of murdering another Hong Kong resident in Taiwan had returned to Hong Kong (“the Taiwan homicide case”), but the request for surrendering the person to Taiwan for trial could not be acceded to because of inadequacies in the Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Ordinance (Cap. 525) (“MLAO”) and FOO and said that he supported the Administration’s proposals.
Jurisdictions with which Hong Kong had signed agreements on MLA and SFO
Referring to paragraph 2 of the Administration’s paper, Mr CHAN Chun-ying asked why Hong Kong had so far only signed MLA agreements with 32 jurisdictions and SFO agreements with 20 jurisdictions since 1997. He sought information on the SFO mechanism before 1997 and queried why there were still many jurisdictions with which Hong Kong had not entered into MLA and SFO agreements. S for S responded that before PRC resumed the exercise of sovereignty over Hong Kong in July 1997, SFO requests were dealt with in accordance with the system of the UK. After July 1997, the HKSAR Government had made appropriate arrangements with other jurisdictions for reciprocal juridical assistance in accordance with Article 96 of BL.
Statistics on SFO requests received from and made to other jurisdictions
Referring to paragraph 3 of the Administration’s paper, Mr CHAN Chun-ying sought information on the respective numbers of SFO requests received from and made to other jurisdictions with which Hong Kong had not entered into SFO agreements.
S for S responded that since Hong Kong’s return to the PRC, Hong Kong had refused at least eight SFO requests from jurisdictions with which Hong Kong had not signed SFO agreements. Regarding jurisdictions with which Hong Kong had signed SFO agreements, in the past ten years or so, Hong Kong had made 24 SFO requests to other jurisdictions, pursuant to which 11 persons had been surrendered to Hong Kong. Other jurisdictions, pursuant to their signed SFO agreements with Hong Kong, had made SFO requests to Hong Kong for the surrender of 66 persons, pursuant to which 23 persons had been surrendered to these jurisdictions. Discussions were still ongoing between the Mainland and HKSAR Government on the long-term MLA and SFO arrangements.