Sentence reviews before the Long Term Prison Sentence Review Board must include oral hearings and adequate reasons should be given for its decisions, a High Court judge has ruled.
Court of First Instance Judge Robert Tang set out the guidelines in his judgment on a judicial review launched by convicted murderer Yau Kwong-man.
Mr Justice Tang quashed two decisions by the board that made no recommendations on Yau's status as a long-term prisoner.
But the judgment will mean little to Yau, who was earlier this month given a fixed-term sentence by the board. Yau was jailed 17 years ago at Her Majesty's pleasure and then at the chief executive's discretion for a murder committed during a gang fight when he was 16. He is due to be released in March.
Mr Justice Tang said in a written judgment that detention at Her Majesty's pleasure was a two-part sentence. The first-part, the minimum term, represented the punitive and retributive part and must be determined by the judiciary.
The board in such cases performed 'essentially a judicial function' by determining the second part, which is the possible detention after the minimum term.
