28 May 1991
HKC 236/1
/PA Penhas. Foreign &
Ms Loghing
29/5
HUD
Commonwealth
Office
53
д Dear Sir Robot,
Year
London SW1A 2AH
I enclose two petitions to Her Majesty The Queen forwarded to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office by the Hong Kong Government in April this year.
The petitions are made by a Hong Kong Chinese citizen Mr Chan Chun-Shan and his family, on behalf of two of his sons, Mr Chan Kan-Sau and Mr Chan Kan-Cheung.
Chan Kan-Sau and Chan Kan-Cheung were involved in the brutal murder of a man at a restaurant in Hong Kong in December 1978. The brothers were found guilty of murder and sentenced to death in November 1979. Following unsuccessful appeals against conviction and sentence, their death sentences were commuted in the usual way, to life imprisonment early in
1981.
Petitions have been made previously to the Governor of Hong Kong by or on behalf of Chan Kan-Sau and Chan Kan-Cheung in 1983, 1988, 1989 and 1988 and 1989 respectively. All of these petitions have been denied. The cases were last reviewed by the Board of Review, Long Term Prison Sentences in December 1990 when the board declined to make any recommendation. The cases will be reviewed again in December
1991.
The Hong Kong Attorney General has advised that as the petitions seek clemency solely on humanitarian grounds and raise no legal issues that might justify an early release, they should be rejected. The Governor of Hong Kong also recommends that the petitions should be rejected. This is also the view of our own Legal Advisers.
With your approval the enclosed reply will be sent to the petitioner through the Hong Kong Government.
ous ever
(S L Gass) Private Secretary
да
The Rt Hon Sir Robert Fellowes KCB KCVO Buckingham Palace
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