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The Government today (August 7) announced that the Chief Executive, on the recommendation of the Chief Justice, had re-appointed Mr Justice Pang Kin-kee, Mr Justice Azizul Rahman Suffiad and Mr Justice Andrew Chung On-tak as panel judges, and Mr Justice Woo Kwok-hing as the Commissioner on Interception of Communications and Surveillance under the Interception of Communications and Surveillance Ordinance.
The re-appointment of the panel judges will take effect from Sunday (August 9), while the re-appointment of the commissioner will take effect from August 17. The terms of appointments of the panel judges as well as the commissioner are all for a period of three years.
The ordinance provides a comprehensive statutory framework for regulating the carrying out of interception and covert surveillance by designated law enforcement agencies. Under the ordinance, there should be three to six panel judges to consider applications for authorisations of interception and Type 1 surveillance and for device retrieval warrants, while the commissioner performs the role of an independent oversight authority to ensure the law enforcement agenciesˇ¦ compliance with the requirements of the ordinance.
A government spokesman said, ˇ§We are grateful to the dedicated services provided by Mr Justice Woo, Mr Justice Pang, Mr Justice Suffiad and Mr Justice Chung in the past three years. We are confident that we can continue to count on their expertise and experience to ensure the effective operation of the regulatory regime under the ordinance.ˇ¨
Ends/Friday, August 7, 2009
Issued at HKT 16:38
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