Planned Hong Kong-Macau extradition pact may cover current fugitives
Extradition treaty with Hong Kong may be pre-dated to ensnare convicts and suspects who haveso far escaped the long arm of the law
An upcoming extradition treaty between Hong Kong and Macau may apply to cases predating the agreement even if no specific retroactive clause is written into it, the South China Morning Post has learned.
Under the treaty, fugitives who take refuge in one city to avoid punishment in the other will be sent back, a government source close to the talks says.
Backdating the enforcement of the treaty could let Macau finally mete out justice to two Hong Kong tycoons its courts convicted in March - Joseph Lau Luen-hung and Steven Lo Kit-sing.
Lau and Lo were each sentenced to five years and three months in prison over a bribes-for-land racket. Lau, former chairman of developer Chinese Estates Holdings, and Lo, chairman of entertainment firm BMA Investment, paid HK$20 million to Macau's ex-public-works minister Ao Man-long, who is serving a 29-year jail term, to secure land for a luxury property project.
But since the two special administrative regions of China have no extradition arrangement between them, the pair will not be thrown into jail unless they voluntarily visit Macau.
Secretary for Justice Rimsky Yuen Kwok-keung travelled to the former Portuguese enclave at least twice last year.
However, the agreement has yet to be finalised in a way that would fit both jurisdictions - a task of "significant difficulty", according to the source. Hong Kong and Macau inherited the British and Portuguese legal systems - exercising common law and continental law - respectively.