Lack of progress on mainland extradition deal impeding justice

Obviously crime pays," said Watergate conspirator Gordon Liddy, "or there'd be no crime."

Having been convicted last month by a Macau court of corruption and money laundering, neither tycoon Joseph Lau Luen-hung nor businessman Steven Lo Kit-sing appeared when Judge Mario Augusto Silvestre sentenced each to five years and three months in prison. Instead, both sat it out in Hong Kong, where, incredibly, they enjoy safe haven, beyond the reach of Macau's judiciary. That Hong Kong has no arrangements for the surrender of fugitives to Macau, its neighbouring special administrative region, is little short of scandalous, although the problem is far wider.

While Hong Kong has signed agreements for the surrender of fugitive offenders with 17 countries, including the United States, Britain and India, it still has no formal rendition agreement with mainland China, let alone Taiwan or Macau, which imperils effective law enforcement throughout China.

The lack of a cross-border agreement was highlighted in 1999, when Cheung Tze-keung, a Hong Kong permanent resident nicknamed the "Big Spender", was alleged, with his gang, to have committed kidnappings and explosives offences in Hong Kong and on the mainland. Although both places had jurisdiction over the case, the mainland tried the gang, given that parts of their crimes had occurred in Guangdong and they were arrested there. While views differed over whether Hong Kong should have done more to bring the gang back here for trial, it was apparent that formalised arrangements for the return of criminal suspects were urgently required; yet, 15 years later, they are still not in place.

In December 1998, then secretary for security Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee announced that negotiations were due to start with Beijing on a rendition arrangement, and there were hopes of an early agreement. These, however, petered out, and in August 2007, Ip's successor, Ambrose Lee Siu-kwong, said that "we all hope negotiations will be resumed as soon as possible". Seven years on, the issue remains unresolved. Since reunification, administrative arrangements have had to be relied on to secure the return of fugitives from the mainland, and these depend on mainland goodwill. The mainland authorities, understandably, expect some reciprocity, and their patience must be wearing very thin.

There are major difficulties in the way of a rendition agreement, centring on the quality of the mainland's justice system and the use of the death penalty, but, 17 years after reunification, the Security Bureau should have made some real progress. Hong Kong, however, must not become a refuge for fugitives, and there is no reason why, as a first step, a rendition agreement should not be hammered out with Macau. After all, Macau has a respectable legal system and, crucially, no death penalty.