Pro-govt Lawmakers Call For Fugitive Bill Changes

Pro-establishment legislators say they have written to the government urging it to make a further two changes to proposed new laws on extraditions in order to ease public concerns.

The convenor of the pro-establishment camp, Martin Liao, said they are asking the government to raise the sentencing threshold of extraditable offences from three to seven years in prison.

Liao also said that any extradition requests from the mainland should come only from the central authorities, such as the Supreme People's Procuratorate – the highest national level organ responsible for criminal investigation and prosecution.

He said the two suggestions were arrived at following vigorous discussions within the camp, adding: “We have some confidence that the government will accept, because they are reasonable proposals”.

But New People’s party lawmaker Regina Ip, formerly the SAR’s security chief, said she did not co-sign the letter.

“As a matter of principle, I don’t think the government ought to exempt some fairly serious crimes, after all, the objective is to prevent Hong Kong from becoming a safe haven for criminals,” she said.

Ip explained, however, why her fellow party member Eunice Yung had signed the letter.

“By raising the threshold further to seven years, that would exclude a lot of crimes relating to child pornography and sex with underage children. But as Eunice pointed out, these offences can be pursued in Hong Kong by way of extraterritorial application,” she said.

Similar proposals had already been made by the local business sector who fear Hong Kong executives will be sent across the border for a range of economic crimes under the proposed law changes, which will allow extraditions on a case-by-case basis to anywhere in the world.

The pan-democratic camp’s convenor, Claudia Mo, said she believes the suggestions do not address the public’s lack of confidence in the mainland’s judicial system.

“The crux of the problem is we, in Hong Kong as well as the international community, simply lack trust and confidence in the Chinese judiciary and its legal system,” she said.

“So we can’t help thinking that the Beijing minions at the legislature and the government are playing a game together to try to cool off the very heated sentiment at the moment over this controversy,” she said.

The government had already said that it was considering further changes to the bill and that an announcement would be made shortly.