"A Mainland courier who intended to escort three Mainland residents to Canada was sentenced to 16 months' imprisonment at the District Court for possession of forged Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) passports and Hong Kong identity cards. The other three Mainlanders were each sentenced to 8 months' imprisonment," said a spokesman for the Immigration Department today (October 23).

The 48-year-old male courier, XUE Zonglu, pleaded guilty to three counts of possessing false instruments. He was sentenced to 16 months' imprisonment for each charge, sentences to run concurrently.

The three Mainland residents, Zhang Chao, Chen Xiuhe and Xie Xinjian aged 26, 24 and 20 respectively, each admitted to one count of conspiracy to possess false instruments. They were sentenced to 8 months' imprisonment.

Case revealed that the four Mainlanders entered Hong Kong on strength of their Chinese passports on July 4 this year via the land control point and proceeded to the Hong Kong International Airport on the same day. Immigration investigators conducted surveillance on them as they intended to check in a flight for Tel Aviv, Israel.

Immigration investigators took over the case after airline security officers later unearthed three HKSAR passports and two Hong Kong identity cards from the courier's luggage.

Subsequent forensic examination confirmed that the passports and identity cards were forged documents.

Enquiries revealed that the courier was requested by a friend of his to bring the other three defendants to go to Canada for job hunting. The courier also agreed to bring the HKSAR passports and identity cards for their future use.

The other three defendants admitted that a middleman in the Mainland had agreed to arrange forged HKSAR passports for them to go to Canada via Tel Aviv. The middleman told them that the forged documents would be distributed to them by the courier on the flight from Hong Kong to Tel Aviv.

"Under the laws of Hong Kong, any person who has in his custody a false instrument commits an offence and is liable on conviction on indictment to imprisonment for 14 years. Conspiracy to possess false instruments receives the same penalty," the spokesman warned.

End/Wednesday, October 23, 2002

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