In response to press enquiries concerning the Secretary for Security Mrs Regina Ip's remarks on the Lai Kwong Keung case as reported in an interview with Reuters today (January 15), a spokesman for the Security Bureau supplemented that Mrs Ip also made the following remarks during the interview (English only):

"In this case, we have no jurisdiction whatsoever over Mr Lai because whatever alleged offences he committed were committed in the mainland. We have no jurisdiction whatsoever. So even though he is a Hong Kong resident, there is no legal basis for us to ask the mainland authorities to bring him back to Hong Kong for trial. All we can do is to act in accordance with the Notification System and ask the mainland to notify us of the details and then we will accordingly pass them on to the family's relatives and give them advice on how best to protect Mr Lai, defend his interests by engaging lawyers in the mainland."

In response to a question on the US President's concern over the case, Mrs Ip said that it was a matter for the US to raise with the mainland authorities if they so wished. She said, "It is a matter for them (the US Government). Naturally, if any foreign government wishes to make its views known to the Chinese authorities on any subject, they are free to do so. But I believe nobody should interfere with another country's legal and judicial systems."

In response to another question on whether she expected the US Government to make a lot of noise over this case and about Hong Kong's stand in the controversy, Mrs Ip said, "I wouldn't want to speculate on what the US Government would wish to do in this case and I don't know enough about Mr Lai's religious beliefs, whichever sect he subscribes to, the so-called Shouters or whatever religious movement based in California. I don't know enough about this movement, so I don't think it would be wise to comment."

End/Tuesday, January 15, 2002
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