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Following is a question by the Hon Paul Tse and a written reply by the Secretary for Security, Mr Lai Tung-kwok, in the Legislative Council today (June 29):
Question:
I raised a question on the 8th of this month enquiring about the assistance rendered to Hong Kong people serving sentences in the Philippines, including Mr Tang Lung-wai and the late Mr Cheung Tai-on in the same case. The Secretary for Security (the Secretary) indicated in his reply that over the years, the Chinese Embassy in the Philippines (the Embassy) had attached great importance to the Hong Kong people serving sentences in the Philippines. Apart from deploying staff to visit them at prison, the Embassy had approached the local judicial authorities for a number of times to understand the circumstances and progress of the cases, and had urged them to hear the cases in accordance with the law and in a prompt and impartial manner. It is learnt that Mr Tang was infuriated after learning of the Secretary's aforesaid reply and queried that the claim of the Embassy attaching great importance to those Hong Kong people serving sentences in the Philippines was not true. Mr Tang pointed out that only in 2013 and 2014 had the Embassy staff visited the seven Hong Kong people who had applied for returning to Hong Kong to serve their sentences, and there were at least eight to nine people whom the Embassy staff had never visited in the past 12 years. Apart from those seven Hong Kong people, there are currently 15 to 17 people (eight to nine of them being holders of the British National (Overseas) Passport, and the rest being holders of the Hong Kong Certificate of Identity or the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Passport) serving long-term sentences there. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) whether it has looked into Mr Tang's claim that a number of Hong Kong people serving sentences in the Philippines had not been visited by the Embassy staff; if it has and the claim is substantiated, how the authorities have come up with the statement that the Embassy had attached great importance to them; whether the authorities will discuss with the Embassy the provision of more assistance to these Hong Kong people;
(2) as the Secretary indicated in his aforesaid reply that the authorities were handling seven applications from Hong Kong people serving sentences in the Philippines for returning to Hong Kong to serve the remainder of their sentences, and the earliest application had been referred to the HKSAR Government by the Embassy in 2002, and yet 14 years have passed but the HKSAR Government is still waiting for the Philippine authorities to provide documents pertaining to the cases concerned, with some of the assistance seekers getting very old, how the Secretary will, as stated in his reply, "continue to follow up (the cases) with the Philippine Government through various practicable channels"; and
(3) as it is learnt that the Philippine Department of Justice has demanded Mr Tang to first pay a penalty of 500,000 pesos before his appeal will be processed, and it is estimated that if Mr Tang wishes to appeal to the Philippine Supreme Court, he will need to pay a legal fee of about HK$90,000, and yet Mr Tang has indicated that he cannot afford them, of the HKSAR Government's means to help him solve such imminent problem, including whether it will urge the State Ministry of Foreign Affairs to discuss with the Philippine Government waiving or lowering the penalty, or exploring other feasible options?
Reply:
President,
The HKSAR Government attaches great importance to cases where individual Hong Kong residents are detained or imprisoned outside Hong Kong. The background and details of the assistance rendered by the HKSAR Government and the Chinese Embassy in the Philippines (the Chinese Embassy) to the Hong Kong residents serving sentences in the Philippines have been detailed in my reply to the related question at the meeting on June 8 this year, and are not repeated here.
Having regard to the circumstances of individual cases, assistance rendered by the HKSAR Government includes informing the assistance seekers' families in Hong Kong of their detention and approaching the local authorities to reflect and follow up on the wishes of the assistance seekers. Such assistance does not include paying legal fees or penalties for the assistance seekers. The HKSAR Government and the Chinese Diplomatic and Consular Missions overseas must respect and abide by the local judicial systems when following up on assistance requests.
The HKSAR Government will continue to monitor the relevant cases to provide the persons serving sentences with practicable assistance.
With respect to the seven applications from Hong Kong residents sentenced in the Philippines for transfer to Hong Kong to serve their remaining sentences, as I have indicated in my reply on June 8, the HKSAR Government has, over the years, repeatedly approached the respective authorities of the Philippine Government directly or via the Chinese Embassy to obtain the documents required for those cases, including the legal documents relating to his conviction and sentence, the length of sentence already served and the remaining sentence, etc., so as to ascertain that the cases have satisfied the conditions for transfer. However, there has been no reply from the Philippine side yet. The HKSAR Government will continue to follow up the cases with the Philippine Government through various practicable channels.
Ends/Wednesday, June 29, 2016
Issued at HKT 16:07
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