Hong Kong’s security minister rules out chief executive pardon for seven jailed policemen
Case is still active as the officers convicted of beating up Occupy activist have appealed, lawmakers told
Lai Tung-kwok made the remarks in the Legislative Council after pro-establishment lawmaker Ann Chiang Lai-wan urged Leung to exonerate the officers as the two-year jail sentences were too harsh. She said the officers had treated Ken Tsang Kin-chiu in an improper manner only because they were under provocation during the 79-day protest Movement in 2014.
“As the exercise of such power will in effect alter the sentence passed by the court, the chief executive would consider prudently and in detail all the relevant factors,” Lai said.
“The chief executive would not exercise his power and function to pardon persons convicted of criminal offences or commute their penalties prior to the completion of all judicial proceedings for a case.”
The chief executive has the power to pardon a convicted person or commute their offence under Article 48 (12) of the Basic Law, the city’s mini-constitution.
Chiang’s colleague Starry Lee Wai-king, chairwoman of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, also spoke out on the issue.
“The heavy sentence astonished society. The sentence failed to show all men were equal before the law. Justice was not done,” she said.
But independent lawmaker Paul Tse Wai-chun, a solicitor, said discussion about the case was not appropriate as the seven had filed appeals. Lai agreed and said he would not comment.
Lai added that the chief executive had exercised his power to alter court decisions in 98 cases between 2012 and 2016. Penalties in 58 cases were commuted after consideration of recommendations by the Long-term Prison Sentences Review Board.
The sentences in 31 cases were altered based on advice by medical experts, while nine prisoners filed petitions to the chief executive as they claimed they had assisted the Department of Justice in the prosecutions.
