ICAC Press Statement
2005-7-23
The following statement is issued by the Independent Commission Against Corruption today (July 23) :
The ICAC regrets the inaccuracies made in the report in the SCMP today, headlined “Lawyers and clients bugged for years”, which has done grave damage to the reputation of the ICAC and caused concern within the legal profession.
At no time did the ICAC Commissioner, Raymond Wong Hung-chiu, and Head of Operations, Daniel Li Ming-chak, say in the Legislative Council’s Panel on Security yesterday that the ICAC “had been eavesdropping on people suspected of corruption and their lawyers for years”, as was reported in the paper.
In fact, both Mr Wong and Mr Li categorically denied the claim made by individual legislators that the ICAC had “regularly” monitored the communication between lawyers and their clients.
They emphasised at the Panel meeting that the ICAC has always had every respect for legal professional privilege.
They explained that covert surveillance has been regularly used in ICAC’s corruption investigations and that evidence gathered through such means has been produced in prosecutions and relied on by the courts in convicting persons charged with serious offences.
However, they also stressed that only in the very exceptional circumstance of the ICAC having strong reason to suspect that a lawyer was a party to corruption or related crime, would the ICAC consider monitoring the communication between the lawyer and hi s client.
They emphasised that, at all such times, such action would only be taken in accordance with the law, and that the ICAC has very strict internal guidelines governing all issues concerning legal professional privilege.
The ICAC regrets the inaccuracies made in the report in the SCMP today, headlined “Lawyers and clients bugged for years”, which has done grave damage to the reputation of the ICAC and caused concern within the legal profession.
At no time did the ICAC Commissioner, Raymond Wong Hung-chiu, and Head of Operations, Daniel Li Ming-chak, say in the Legislative Council’s Panel on Security yesterday that the ICAC “had been eavesdropping on people suspected of corruption and their lawyers for years”, as was reported in the paper.
In fact, both Mr Wong and Mr Li categorically denied the claim made by individual legislators that the ICAC had “regularly” monitored the communication between lawyers and their clients.
They emphasised at the Panel meeting that the ICAC has always had every respect for legal professional privilege.
They explained that covert surveillance has been regularly used in ICAC’s corruption investigations and that evidence gathered through such means has been produced in prosecutions and relied on by the courts in convicting persons charged with serious offences.
However, they also stressed that only in the very exceptional circumstance of the ICAC having strong reason to suspect that a lawyer was a party to corruption or related crime, would the ICAC consider monitoring the communication between the lawyer and hi s client.
They emphasised that, at all such times, such action would only be taken in accordance with the law, and that the ICAC has very strict internal guidelines governing all issues concerning legal professional privilege.