International Criminal Division-
37019
RECEIVER
A ISTRY
29 Jun 1993
SOLICITOR'S OFFICE
HM CUSTOMS AND EXCISE
NEW KING'S BEAM HOUSE 22 UPPER GROUND
LONDON SE1 9PJ
Dial Direct 071-865 extn
Switchboard 071-620 1313
GTN 3913
5725
DESK OVER
INDEX
TA
REGISTRY Action Taken:
Mr P F Rickette
Hong Kong Department
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
Whitehall
London SW1A 2AF
by Fax 270-3387
Your reference
Our reference RM (Hong Kong.
25th June 1993
Mr Quaken
1/3/6
RE:
Draft Agreement between Hong Kong and the UK concerning Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters
-N/R
I write further to my letter of the 17th June, and, having consulted the European and International Division of this Department which has policy responsibility for questions on mutual assistance, I make the following points (referring to the paragraph numbers in point 4 of your note of the 4th June 1993):-
19 (i) We do take the view that a UK/Hong Kong MLAT after 1997
would be most useful. In particular, the Department has experienced some difficulties in recent months in obtaining evidence in Hong Kong under existing legislation. The legislation is quite narrow in its scope and, in particular, requires the prosecuting authority in the UK to be able to identify documents etc. requested in precise terms, before coercive steps can be taken in Hong Kong. It is to be hoped that an Agreement in the broad terms of the current draft would assist in enabling a wider range of assistance to be given to the
UK.
(ii) I set out below our comments on the draft text. Some of
the points are, of course, more for the Home Office, or others, to consider, but are included in the light of our experience as practitioners. As you might expect, we have a particular concern regarding the bar on assistance in Article 1(3) of the draft:-
Article 1
It might be useful, as in the European Convention on
(25
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.