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Following is a question by the Hon Alan Leong and a written reply by the Acting Secretary for Security, Mr John Lee, in the Legislative Council today (May 11):
Question:
Under the Arrangements on the Establishment of a Reciprocal Notification Mechanism between the Mainland Public Security Authorities and the Hong Kong Police (the Notification Mechanism) that has been in operation since January 1, 2001, the scope of matters of which the Mainland Notification Unit shall notify the Hong Kong Police includes: the imposition of criminal compulsory measures (including summons for questioning, putting on bail, residence under surveillance, detention and arrest) by the public security authorities (including the investigations into smuggling activities handled by the customs authorities) on Hong Kong residents suspected of having committed crimes, and unnatural deaths of Hong Kong residents on the Mainland. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) among the notifications received by the Police since the implementation of the Notification Mechanism, of (i) the number of Hong Kong residents on whom criminal compulsory measures were imposed on the Mainland and, among them, (ii) the number of those who subsequently sought assistance from the Hong Kong Government, and set out in Table 1 a breakdown by the offences they were suspected to have committed;
Table 1
Offences suspected to have (i) (ii)
been committed
-------------------------- --- ----
Fraud
Smuggling
Personal injury
(murder, wounding, etc.)
Offences relating to national security
Others (please specify)
(2) whether it knows, among the Hong Kong residents mentioned in (1), (i) the number of those subsequently convicted and sentenced to imprisonment on the Mainland, and (ii) the longest imprisonment sentence imposed, and set out in Table 2 a breakdown by the offences they have committed;
Table 2
Offences committed (i) (ii)
------------------ --- ----
Fraud
Smuggling
Personal injury
(murder, wounding, etc.)
Offences relating to national security
Others (please specify)
(3) whether it knows, among the Hong Kong residents mentioned in (2), (i) the number of those who are still serving their sentences on the Mainland at present, and (ii) the number of those sentenced to imprisonment for "crimes of endangering national security", and set out in Table 3 a breakdown by length of sentence imposed on them; and
Table 3
Length of sentence imposed (i) (ii)
-------------------------- --- ----
Less than one year
One year to three years
More than three years
Life imprisonment
(indeterminate prison sentence)
(4) of the number of unnatural deaths of Hong Kong residents on the Mainland the notifications of which were received by the Police since the implementation of the Notification Mechanism, and set out in Table 4 a breakdown by cause of death?
Table 4
Cause of death Number of deaths
-------------- -----------------
Accident
Murder
Uncertain cause
Others (please specify)
Reply:
President,
Our consolidated reply to Hon Alan Leong's question is as follows:
Since January 1, 2001, the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) has, by way of an administrative arrangement and on the basis of mutual respect for the relevant laws of both sides, put in place a reciprocal notification mechanism with the Mainland in respect of cases involving unnatural deaths and imposition of criminal compulsory measures on residents from the other side, so that notification could be made as soon as practicable. Under the existing reciprocal notification mechanism, the Notification Unit in the Mainland (that is, the Liaison Officer of the Ministry of Public Security) should notify the Hong Kong Notification Unit (that is, the Liaison Bureau of the Hong Kong Police Force) of the imposition of criminal compulsory measures on Hong Kong residents by the public security authorities, the Mainland customs authorities, People's Procuratorates and the Ministry of State Security, and the unnatural deaths of Hong Kong residents in the Mainland. Matters which the Hong Kong Notification Unit should notify the Mainland counterparts include criminal prosecutions instituted by the Hong Kong Police Force, the Customs and Excise Department and the Immigration Department against Mainland residents, and the unnatural deaths of Mainland residents in Hong Kong.
As at the end of March 2016, the Mainland authorities had made to the Hong Kong Notification Unit a total of 12 349 notifications involving 9 165 and 452 Hong Kong residents being imposed compulsory measures (including summons for questioning, putting on bail, residence under surveillance, detention and arrest) and died unnaturally respectively. Cases relating to the imposition of compulsory measures were mostly offences related to deception, smuggling, dangerous drugs and theft.
The Police do not maintain detailed statistical breakdowns on individual cases as specified in the question.
Ends/Wednesday, May 11, 2016
Issued at HKT 17:14
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