TNAG-0401-FCO40-447-Review-of-the-death-sentence-in-Hong-Kong-1973 — Page 145

KONG STANDARD

73

HONG MAY 17H

1+1/14/16

Killer Tsoi could be free in 1977

KILLER Tsoi Kwok-cheong whose reprieve from Britain has sparked off a storm of controversy - could be walking the streets of Hongkong a free man by

1977.

"It's a theoretical possibility, Acting Solicitor General Mr Garth Thornton said last night.

"Under section 69A” of the Prison Rules,” Mr Thorton told the Standard,

the

•Commissioner of Prisons shall submit to the Governor for review the case of any prisoner of any category.”

Mr Thornton added that condemned murderer Tsoi's first review will come up only after an initial minimum of four years have been served. "His case is then eligible for review every two years thereafter.

"The fact that his case will be under review will not necessarily mean he can get out. Tsoi can only be a free man if the Governor decides to let him free."

Another legal source, who asked not be be named, said that in Tsoi's case "it would be very, very unlikely that this man would get out of prison in under 20 years."

The Commissioner of Prisons, Mr Tom Garner, told the Standard last night that Tsoi has been moved to another cell since his death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.

"He is now subjected to the same degree of supervision as the remainder of the prisoners," said Mr Garner,

・by Tong Bugay, Petor Lern

who added that a former 24-hour watch by one prison" staff on the prisoner has been

relaxed a little.

Mr Gamer disclosed that) Tsoi was "naturally very relieved" when prison officials delivered the news of the reprieve to the convicted murderer on Tuesday morning.

Police Commissioner C.P. Sutcliffe had no comment to make on Tsoi's reprieve.

But people at various resettlement estates were bitter about the reprieve.

Living in the worse crime arcas in the Colony most of those questioned by the Standard replied immediately that they did not think the pardon was "justified”.

Many were visibly angry. Housewives at the Tszwanshan Resettlement Estate said the estate was notorious for gang fights and that at several blocks near the hillside where hooligans gather at night, few people dare "to try their luck” by leaving their homes.

A housewife at Block 50

said the reprieve was "*a generous gift at the expense of other people's lives."

She was afraid that outlaw

++

*

would not hesitate to kill now since the death sentence was no longer a threat.

One man said his attitude would be "to hell with the law" if any of his relatives were killed.

An office clerk living at Saumauping Resettlement Estate said: "Sir Murray is right in rejecting the reprieve. It is time that we should declare war on all thugs.”

"The life imprisonment of Tsoi will waste the taxpayers' money to feed him behind the bars.'

Mr James Mark, a social worker who las regular contact with the resettlement estate residents, said: "I am working for a Catholic organisation, but my opinion is different from Bishop Francis Hsu who pleaded to spare Tsoi's life.

"For social order, the death senience must be maintained."