'Fugitive Law Exemptions Won't Save HK Executives'

The Bar Association warned on Tuesday that the government's move to exempt several corporate crimes from the list of offences that could lead to one-off extradition deals under proposed new legislation will offer nothing but an "illusory" legal protection to the SAR's businesspeople.

In a statement, the association notes that while people could not be surrendered over the crimes stripped out of the legislation, they could easily be charged with a related offence that is still covered.

"For instance, circumstances giving rise to an allegation of a securities trading offence, an exempted offence, can often also give rise to allegations of fraud, which is not an exempted offence," the statement says.

The Bar Association also accused the Carrie Lam administration of trying to trick the public into believing there is a pressing need to change the city's laws because a "loophole" is preventing justice being served in cases where crimes involve other parts of the People's Republic of China.

"This restriction against any surrender arrangements with the rest of the PRC, whether under a long-term formal arrangement or case-based arrangements, is not a 'loophole', as repeatedly, and in our view, misleadingly, asserted by the senior government officials (namely the Chief Executive, the Secretary for Justice, and the Secretary for Security) on various occasions," the statement says.

It adds that it was a deliberate decision by Legco when the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance was enacted in 1997 not to allow renditions to other parts of the country, "particularly in light of the fundamentally different criminal justice system operating in the mainland and concerns over the mainland’s track record on the protection of fundamental rights."

The association said that the government has failed to explain why it believes that circumstances have changed on the mainland since 1997.

Following fierce resistance from the business sector, the government announced last month that it was removing nine of the 46 types of offences already included in the ordinance from the list of those which could lead to extraditions on a case-by-case basis.