Security laws of six countries taken into consideration - Lee

Eunice Lam

The government has taken into consideration the national security legislation of at least six overseas jurisdictions, including the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu said.

Lee said the recommendations set out in the consultation paper had integrated current laws and the actual situation in Hong Kong as well as "a huge amount" of relevant laws overseas.

"Many countries established a lot of legislation to safeguard national security based on the risks they are facing and their own needs. For the US, there are at least 21, at least 14 in the UK, [nine] for Canada, six for Singapore, four for Australia and two in New Zealand," he said.

"The government will take reference from the laws in other countries during the legislative work [of Article 23]."

The crime of treason is listed in legislation in the UK, US, Australia, and Canada, with the maximum penalty being life imprisonment or even death penalty in the United States.

According to the consultation paper, under current Hong Kong laws, one's treasonous acts may constitute the crime of treason in the Crimes Ordinance, or the crime of misprision of treason in the common law system, which is failure to report a known offense of treason.

The paper suggested enhancing the legislation, including codifying the offense of misprision of treason.

After Lee's announcement in the morning, government officials, including Secretary for Justice Paul Lam Ting-kwok and Secretary for Security Chris Tang Ping-keung, attended a joint meeting to brief lawmakers at the Legislative Council.

Lam said at the meeting taking reference from overseas legislation did not mean "moving the words over the paper."

He added: "We would take Hong Kong's actual situation into account, and strike a balance between the responsibility of national security and topics the public cared about, such as human rights and freedoms."

The consultation paper also said it would take reference to the UK's national security legislation to extend detention time for suspects, while the Hong Kong version will tighten bail conditions for suspects.

The current Police Force Ordinance states suspects should not be detained for more than 48 hours.

But in the last chapter, the government cited the UK National Security Act, saying it allows police to extend the detention without charge and enables officers to ban a detainee from consulting a particular lawyer or banning a detainee from holding a bank account.

The government suggested introducing such policies to ensure law enforcement bodies have adequate time to "carry out all the necessary preliminary investigation on the arrested persons and the case, and prevent any circumstances that may jeopardize the investigation."

The government suggested introducing measures aimed at addressing and preventing abscondment.

eunice.lam@singtaonewscorp.com