TNAG-1996-FCO40-2843-Hong-Kong-Drug-Trafficking-(Recovery-of-Proceeds)-Ordinance--1991 — Page 65

Enclosure No. Z

HONG KONG

LEGAL REPORT

DRUG TRAFFICKING (RECOVERY OF PROCEEDS) ORDINANCE 1989

(No. 35 of 1989)

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

2.

The objects of this Ordinance are

to empower the High Court and District Court to freeze and to confiscate the proceeds of drug trafficking;

to provide new powers of investigation to permit the identification of the proceeds of drug trafficking;

to create new offences of assisting a person to retain or conceal the proceeds of drug trafficking, and of disclosing information likely to prejudice an investigation into drug trafficking; and

to establish a framework for the enforcement of confiscation orders made by the courts of other countries.

The Ordinance is broadly modelled on the Drug Trafficking Offences Act 1986 of the United Kingdom. The significant provisions of the Ordinance are described below.

3.

Section 2(1) defines "drug trafficking" as doing, or being concerned in, whether in Hong Kong or elsewhere, an act constituting an offence, being an offence listed in Schedule 1 to the Ordinance, or a corresponding offence in the country where it is committed. The definition also includes being concerned in arrangements to assist another in retaining the proceeds of drug trafficking.

4. Section 3 empowers the High Court or District Court, after sentencing a convicted drug trafficker, to determine whether the offender has benefited from drug trafficking, irrespective of whether or not this benefit has resulted from the offence of which he has been convicted. If he has so benefited, the court will assess his proceeds and impose a confiscation order. For the purpose of this assessment, the court may make certain rebuttable assumptions under section 4,