A TOTAL of 246 Hong Kong residents are serving sentences in jails around the world. Another nine are facing the death penalty.
SINGAPORE Fourteen residents from Hong Kong are serving prison sentences for crimes ranging from credit card fraud to drug-related offences. Another four face death sentences for drug smuggling.
Lam Cheuk-wang, 24, and Tong Ching-man, 22, were sentenced to death in August 1993. Poon Yuen-chung, 22, lost her appeal against a death sentence last January. And Daniel Chan Chi-pun, 38, received a stay-of-execution in November in order to submit a plea for clemency to Singapore President Ong Teng Cheong. Clemency pleas have been made by those on death row, although it is uncertain how long they will take to be reviewed.
Consular Secretary at the British High Commission in Singapore Colin Lane said if the pleas were dismissed, there was nothing more the British Government could do. So far, Singapore has executed 12 Hong Kong residents.
Ten of those have been executed within the past 15 months: Raymond Ko Mun-cheung, Chiu Sum-hing, Elke Tsang Kai-mong, Wong Wai-hung, Ng Kwok-chun, Hsui Wing-cheung, Fung Yuk-shing, Nathan Tse Po-chung, Cheuk Mei-mei and Angel Mou Pui-peng. The high number of recent executions were due to the speeding up of the judicial process. The country remains resolute that the death penalty will continue to apply to people trafficking more than 15 grams of heroin or 500 grams of cannabis.
MALAYSIA Eight Hong Kong residents have been executed to date and another one is on death row.
THAILAND There are 2,175 foreigners among a total prison population of 102,000, of whom 101 are Hong Kong residents. This makes people from Hong Kong the sixth largest group of foreigners in Thai jails, behind the Burmese, who make up the largest group of foreign inmates (809), Nigerians (207) and Laotians (181). The majority of Hong Kong residents have been convicted for drug offences, and others for offences against the person.