Hong Kong Ordinances

MUTUAL LEGAL ASSISTANCE IN CRIMINAL MATTERS ORDINANCE - SECT 30

Evidence in relation to proceedings and orders in place outside Hong Kong

Amendments retroactively made - see 25 of 1998 s. 2

(1) For the purposes of sections 27 and 28 and Schedule 2, a certificate
purporting to be issued by or on behalf of the appropriate  authority of a
place outside Hong Kong stating-

   (a)  that a proceeding has been instituted and has not been concluded, or
        that a proceeding is to be instituted, in the place;

   (b)  that an external confiscation order is in force and is not subject to
        appeal;

   (c)  that all or a certain amount of the sum payable under an
        external confiscation order remains unpaid in the place, or that other
        property recoverable under an external confiscation order remains
        unrecovered in the place;

   (d)  that any person has been notified of any proceeding in accordance with
        the law of the place; or

   (e)  that an order (however described) made by a court in the place has the
        purpose of-

        (i)    recovering (including forfeiting and confiscating)- (A)
               payments or other rewards received in connection with an
               external serious offence or their value; (B) property derived
               or realised, directly or indirectly, from payments or other
               rewards received in connection with an external serious 
               offence or the value of such property; or (C) property used or
               intended to be used in connection with an
               external serious offence or the value of such property; or

        (ii)   depriving a person of a pecuniary advantage obtained in
               connection with an external serious offence, shall, in any
               proceeding in the Court of First Instance, be admissible as
               evidence of the facts so stated. (Amended 25 of 1998 s. 2)

(2) In any such proceeding a statement contained in a document,
duly certified, which purports to have been received in evidence or to be a
copy of a document so received, or to set out or summarise evidence given in
proceedings in a court in a place outside Hong Kong, shall be admissible as
evidence of any fact stated therein.

(3) A document is duly certified for the purposes of subsection (2) if it
purports to be certified by any person in his capacity as a judge, magistrate
or officer of the court in the place outside Hong Kong concerned, or by or on
behalf of an appropriate authority of the place, to have been received in
evidence or to be a copy of a document so received or, as the case may be, to
be the original document containing or summarising the evidence or a true copy
of that document.

(4) Nothing in this section shall prejudice the admission of any evidence,
whether contained in any document or otherwise, which is admissible apart from
this section.