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The Director of Public Prosecutions of the Department of Justice, Mr Grenville Cross, SC, was today (August 28) awarded the Certificate of Merit of the International Association of Prosecutors (IAP) at the 13th annual conference of the IAP in Singapore.
Mr Cross was elected as a member of the Executive Committee of the IAP in 2007, and represents Hong Kong, China. He is the first prosecutor from Hong Kong to sit on the Executive Committee of the IAP. He was elected for a three-year term.
The Certificate of Merit was awarded to Mr Cross in recognition of his contribution to the objects of the IAP, including having hosted the 12th annual conference of the IAP in Hong Kong in September 2007.
Mr Cross described the award as a "great honour" and said it was "a welcome recognition of the status now enjoyed at the international level by the prosecution service of Hong Kong".
Mr Cross led the Prosecutions Division of the Department of Justice into the IAP in 2001, as its 75th organisational member, and since then the division has played a full role in the work of the IAP, including its initiatives to counter organised crime, corruption, child abuse, technology crime and narcotics.
The IAP is the only world organisation of prosecutors. It was established in 1995 at the United Nations Offices in Vienna. The IAP is committed to developing close co-operation amongst the prosecutors of the world and to promoting high standards of criminal justice. The IAP includes individual and organisational members from more than 130 countries. The organisational members are drawn from every region of the world, and represent more than 200,000 prosecutors.
Ends/Thursday, August 28, 2008
Issued at HKT 18:35
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