布政司署 香港下亞厘車道
CONFIDENTIAL
Pa
GOVERNMENT SECRETARIAT
LOWER ALBERT ROAD
HONG KONG
PA CR 1/1/2801/91
** Our Ref..
* Your Ref.:
HKB 38013.
M V Stone Esq
Hong Kong Department
FCO
27 August 1991
уси Ричмань,
1.
Co-operation with China on Crimi
10
criminal/matters
Thank you for your letter of 21 August, and for letting US see Ms Barrett's advice on this matter. The following represents our collective view.
2.
We are pleased to note Ms Barrett does not believe our proposals are likely to result in breaches of international legal obligations by the UK.
3.
We think the sentence in para 3 of Ms Barrett's advice which refers to Article 7 of the TCCPR is not strictly relevant and is worded too broadly. That Article concerns cruel and unusual punishment and not unfair trials, which are covered by Article 14, nor the death penalty, which is permitted by the ICCPR under Article 6 (as noted earlier by Ms Barrett).
4.
On para 4, while we note the human rights concerns, you appreciate we need to balance these against very real problems we face here in Hong Kong with serious offences committed by mainland criminals. As pointed out in our telno 2571, para 3, we believe public opinion here would favour the proposals.
We are of course very much aware of the need for each case to be considered individually and with great care but we believe this is adequately provided for in our proposed procedures.
5.
On point (a) in para 5, you will have noted that we will obtain legal advice as to possible "unfairness" (our telno 2462, para 11(b)). This will involve consideration of all the elements in Article 4 of our model MLA Agreement. When we come to negotiate MLA arrangements with China in the future, we will explain that these have been our basic principles in processing requests and that we will insist that they be retained in the arrangements. On point (b), our procedures involve the Political Adviser and Secretary for Security in addition to, and
CONFIDENTIAL
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