G.F. 323 0003230
CONFIDENTIAL # # 機密
- 5-
NO. OF Persons Cases Convicted
Maximum Sentence Minimum Sentence
Average Sentence
Supreme Court 1.1.66 to 31.12.68.
31
57
12 years
2 years
6.7 yrs.
1.1.69
to 31.10.73.
41
64
15 years
18 months
6.4 yrs.
District Court
1.1.66 to 31.12.68.
25
30
5 years
18 months
3.4 yrs.
1.1.69
to 31.10.73.
106
147
5 years
Fine $100
2.6 yrs.
Recently the trend in all Courts appears to be towards stiffer sentences for those engaged in the drug trade for profit.
11.
So far as can be ascertained, no one in Hong Kong has ever been sentenced to life imprisonment for an offence under the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance even though some of the world's largest seizures of opiate drugs have taken place in the Colony and a fair number of major heroin refineries have been detected. The reason may be that it has never yet proved possible to obtain sufficient evidence to prosecute any of the major organisers of the trade so that the Judges may have taken the view that those convicted were no more than hirelings.
12.
(b) Keeping Divans, and Minor Trafficking Offences
The offence of 'keeping a divan' - whether heroin or opium is always dealt with summarily. There were 5 cases of heroin divan keeping during 1972 and 229 in respect of opium. Persons convicted of the former are invariably sent to gaol. Fines (not infrequently of a few hundred dollars only) are often imposed for the latter even where there is a previous record for opium divan keeping, though there are recent indications that
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