TNAG-2284-FCO40-3285-Capital-punishment-in-Hong-Kong-1991 — Page 237

FREIGH

D COMMONWEALTH OFFIC

Hike 08 JUL 1991

RECHTSANWALT

DR. WOLFGANG RAINER

-

pr. cap.run

45600

сарги

1070 WIEN, EUBAUGASSE 12-14 TELEFON 526 34 34 TELEFAX 526 34 38

KONTI: HYPOTHEKENBANK DES LANDES VORARLBERG (BLZ. 58020) 20184142113 - PSK (BLZ. 60000) 764 250 RAIFFEISENBANK WIEN (BLZ. 32900) 4.717.716

The Honourable Dame Lydia Dunn

Member, Legislative Council

The Honourable

Maria Tam Wai-chu

Member, Legislative Council all: 8 Jackson Road, Hong Kong

The Honourable Allen Lee Peng-fei Member, Legislative Council

The Honourable Kingsley Sit Ho-yin

Member, Legislative Council

The Honourable Attorney General J.F. Mathews, ex-officio member, Legislative Council

Legal Department

66 Queensway, Hong Kong

South China Morning Post GPO Box 47, Hong Kong

KOPIE

Hain Pao(Hong Kong Daily News) GPO Box 1586, Hong Kong

Ref.: Possible Resumption of Judicial Executions

Dear Ladies, Dear Gentlemen !

Hong Kong's Legislative Council will debate tomorrow, 26 th of June 1991, whether to urge the government of the colony to resume carrying out the execution of prisoners sentenced to death.

Death sentences are still passed out by courts but they have invariably been commuted by the Governor, generally to life imprisonment. Over 200 death sentences have been commuted since 1966. The Governor would not be formally bound by a LEGO decision to reinstate the use of the death penalty, but he would be under (moral and political pressure not to commute all executions.

No execution has been carried out in Hong Kong since 1966, after the United Kingdom provisionally abolished the death penalty for all but exceptional crimes in 1965. The UK's decision in 1969 to make abolition permanent was not extended to Hong Kong.

May I express my concern at the proposal to resume executions in Hong Kong. I have to state Amnesty International's opposition to the death penalty on the grounds that it constitutes the ultimate form of cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment and that it violates the right to life.

The effectiveness of the death penalty is increasingly questioned and the resumption of executions would be contrary to both world and reginal trends towards the abolition of the death penalty, both in practice and in law.

·