SOUTH CHINA
MORNING
POST.
APRIL 19TH 73
Plea to Queen by murderer
A condemned murderer, Tsoi Kwok-cheong, has appealed to the Queen for mercy.
In an eleventh hour bid to beat the gallows. Tsoi has submitted his appeal, drafted by a barrister, through the
Attorney-General, Mr D. T. E. Roberts.
Mr Roberts yesterday confirmed that the petition had been received and would be sent to London.
He made his appeal under a provision granted to all condemned men who refused a reprieve.
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When the Governor, acting on the advice of the Executive Council, refused to reprieve him. Tsoi was handed a printed form informing him of his right to appeal to the Queen within a period of seven days.
Yesterday, after a number of meetings between Tsoi and the Hongkong barrister, the document containing his appeal for mercy was finalised in English and Tsoi signed his name in Chinese.
The document was then forwarded to the Attorney General for transmission to London.
There it will be considered initially by the Secretary of State for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and ultimately by the Queen.
It was stressed yesterday that this was a petition for mercy and not an appeal to the Privy Council.
However, it was also stressed that there was no question of Tsoi or any other condemned murderer not being to appeal on account of not having sufficient funds.
The financial means to enable a condemned murderer to appeal against ૧ death sentence could always be arranged.
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Nor was it necessary for a condemned murderer to find an outside sponsor. He could lodge the appeal on his Own through his legal representative. Commenting on Tsoi's appeal to the Queen, Mr Roberts said that in the preparation of his petition, Tson had the help of a Hongkong barrister, Mr Francis Eddis.
He also said the time within which Tsoi could have appealed to the Privy Council expired nearly three months ago.
HILIL14/16
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