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No plan to reactivate Triad Renunciation Scheme
Following is a question by the Hon Chim Pui-chung and a reply by the Secretary for Security, Mr Peter Lai, in the Legislative Council today (Wednesday):
Question:
It has been reported that the triad renunciation scheme implemented in Taiwan has been quite successful. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
Reply:
(a)
(b)
Mr President,
(a)
(b)
of the current estimated number of triad members in the territory; and
whether consideration will be given to introducing a scheme under which triad members can renounce their triad membership completely; if so, when such a scheme will be implemented; if not, why not?
Any person known to the Police as having triad membership or committed other unlawful society offences will be arrested. The number of persons arrested for unlawful society offences in the past three years were 857 in 1994, 989 in 1995 and 728 in 1996 respectively. These include persons arrested for being a member of a triad society, those acting as a member of triad society, and those professing or claiming to be a triad member. We do not have any separate estimate on the number of triad members in the territory.
We launched the Triad Renunciation Scheme on 8 December 1988 as a one-off measure to allow people to formally renounce their triad membership, so that they can be freed from prosecution for offences relating to triad membership under the Societies Ordinance. It is aimed particularly at young people who may have become triad members under duress or out of ignorance, so that they can free themselves from the taint of triad membership. The Scheme was suspended on 1 April 1991 after it had operated for two-and-a-half years.