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Sentences under Her Majesty's pleasure
Following is a question by the Hon Leung Yiu-chung and a written reply by the Secretary for Security, Mr Peter Lai, in the Legislative Council today (Wednesday):
Question:
It is learnt that section 70 of the Criminal Procedure Ordinance, under which the court could order a young offender who was under 18 when the offence was committed to be detained until Her Majesty's pleasure shall be known, was repealed in 1993. At present, there are still such prisoners being detained pending the Governor's decision on their sentences, and some of them have already been detained for 10 years or more. The Board of Review on Long Term Prison Sentences (the Board) now reviews such cases once every year, and after the prisoners concerned have reached the age of 21, the cases are reviewed once every two years, so that recommendations may be made to the Governor regarding the remission of the sentences of the prisoners concerned. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
whether the prisoners concerned and their families will be advised of the outcome of the Board's review and the reasons for the Board's recommendations; if not, what the reasons are;
of the appeal channels open to the prisoners concerned if they are dissatisfied with the outcome of the Board's review;
given that such prisoners are not allowed to apply for parole as their sentences have yet to be determined, whether the Government has considered if the existing arrangement of detaining such prisoners pending the Governor's decision on their sentences has deprived the rights of such prisoners, and if such prisoners may suffer greater mental stress than other prisoners; and
whether there is a minimum length of sentence imposed on such prisoners and whether the Government will consider setting a deadline (e.g. within one year after the prisoner reaches the age of 21) for determining the length of sentence for such prisoners, so as to ensure that these prisoners will not have to serve sentences longer than those served by adult prisoners committing the same offences?