TNAG-0678-FCO40-827-Allegations-of-corruption-and-bribery-in-Hong-Kong-1977 — Page 6

CONFIDENTIAL

Hong Kong Government accept that the ICAC has had an impact on the police but they claim that morale is not now low at any level and

certainly not at the higher levels in the police force. It is clearly difficult to strike a proper balance between the need to root out corruption in the police force and to keep up the morale of the honest majority of police officers.

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the rights of the individual

5. On the second point Lord Goronwy-Roberts commented in January this year that there seemed to be a strong case, widely supported, for an Ombudsman and that the welcome increase in the activity of UMELCO on complaints was not a complete answer. (This was in the context of a letter to Mr George Gardiner MP who had passed on complaints from a constituent living in Hong Kong about the ICAC's investigation methods). I discussed the case for an Ombudsman with the Governor and others, including Mr Cater, when I was in Hong Kong. I suggested that the existing Advisory Committee on Corruption, an unofficial body set up by the Governor, might be modified and strengthened by the addition of unofficial members of LegCo well known for their concern for human rights so as to fulfil an appellate and review function in respect of the ICAC's operations. The Governor did not seem to like this idea but his officials and Mr Cater said that they would look into it and put proposals to us.

6. The Hong Kong authorities take the view that there are already sufficient safeguards for protecting the rights of the individual investigated by the ICAC. Investigations are not started without

the approval of the Commission's Target Operations Committee and in the case of public officers who are cleared, there is an agreed procedure for putting this on record. The fact remains that there has been concern in Hong Kong about the treatment of persons under investigation by the ICAC. Only this month a judge has criticized the ICAC for holding a suspect for 42 hours without specifying the charge and ruled that a statement made by a suspect held for such a period of time was inadmissible. The Hong Kong Government and Mr Cater have undertaken to let me have full details of the existing safeguards so that this issue can be further considered.

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