NOTE FOR FILE
CONFIDENTIAL
1.
нко
RECEIV
384
DAWAHV
Merland, p. 26/4
35
Pl. see also Mas Barrett's channte,
attached.
The mating is now at 5.00pm. (I am drafting a reply to
HK Telna 1204)!
to M 24/4
LORRAIN OSMAN: HABEAS CORPUS 5: TELEPHONE CONVERSATION WITH GRAHAM GRANT
1. Caroline Martin of Clifford Chance, the Hong Kong Government's new solicitors (and author of their letter of 16 April to Mr Paul) told me that Graham Grant, Junior Counsel and Consultant to the Hong Kong Attorney General's Department was in London working with Clive Nicholls (HKG's counsel here) on the text of the affidavit.
She suggested I contact him. I
telephoned him on 19 April.
2.
I told him that we had just telegraphed Hong Kong to remind them that they had promised us their views on the draft affidavit and also mentioned that the letter from Clifford Chance seemed to suggest that HKG had changed their view on who should swear the affidavit, it now seemed that they thought someone in the FCO should do it. Mr Grant said that "for obvious reasons which I can't discuss over the phone" (which I took to be a reference to be Warwick Reid) the handling of the Osman case had "been privatised to a large extent", implying that tactics on the case were largely being considered by the solicitors and Counsel. and Clive Nicholls were representing HKG, and Clare Montgomery, Counsel was continuing to represent the Governor of Brixton Prison and the Home Office in the habeas corpus action.
3. He said that Osman's latest application raises a number of arguments including the following:
He
a) prior to 4 April 1990 there was no Basic Law in existence, and it was on this basis that the courts dealing with the matter before that date made the decisions;
b) one of the protections for prisoners under the Extradition Act 1989 is the "speciality assurance" which provides that no person extradited to Hong Kong from the United Kingdom would be tried for an offence other than the offence for which he was returned. Osman asserts that the corresponding Hong Kong legislation is inadequate for this purpose;
c) furthermore, because the Basic Law gives the PRC the responsibility for foreign affairs after 1997, (and the PRC has no extradition agreements with any other country) none of the extradition arrangements which HKG already has in place will be able to survive 1997.
CONFIDENTIAL