Hong Kong Regulations

UNITED NATIONS SANCTIONS (AFGHANISTAN) REGULATION - SCHEDULE SCHEDULE

(Past version on 23/06/2000).

[sections 5 & 6]

EVIDENCE AND INFORMATION

1. (1) Without prejudice to any other provision of this Regulation or any
provision of any other law, the Chief Executive (or an authorized officer) may
request any person in or resident in the HKSAR to furnish to the Chief
Executive (or to that authorized officer) any information, or to produce to
the Chief Executive (or to that authorized  officer) any document, that the
person has in his possession or control and that the Chief Executive (or that
authorized officer) may require for the purpose of securing compliance with or
detecting evasion of this Regulation, and any person to whom such a request is
made shall comply with it within such time and in such manner as may be
specified in the request.

(2) Nothing in subsection (1) shall be taken to require any person who has
acted as counsel or solicitor for any person to disclose any privileged
communication made to him in that capacity.

(3) Where a person is convicted of failing to furnish information or produce a
document when requested to do so under this section, the magistrate or court
may make an order requiring him, within such period as may be specified in the
order, to furnish the information or produce the document.

(4) The power conferred by this section to request any person to produce
documents shall include the power to take copies of or extracts from any
document so produced and to request that person or, where that person is a
body corporate, any person who is a present or past officer of, or is employed
by, the body corporate to provide an explanation of such document.

2. (1) If any magistrate or judge is satisfied by information on oath given by
any police officer, customs officer or authorized officer-

   (a)  that there is reasonable ground for suspecting that an offence under
        this Regulation or, with respect to any of the matters regulated by
        this Regulation, an offence under any enactment relating to customs
        has been or is being committed and that evidence of the commission of
        the offence is to be found on any premises specified in the
        information or in any vehicle, ship or aircraft so specified; or

   (b)  that any document that ought to have been produced under section 1 and
        that has not been so produced is to be found on any such premises or
        in any such vehicle, ship or aircraft, he may grant a search warrant
        authorizing any police officer or customs  officer, together with any
        other persons named in the warrant and any other police or
        customs officers, to enter the premises specified in the information
        or, as the case may be, any premises upon which the vehicle, ship or
        aircraft so specified may be, at any time within one month from the
        date of the warrant and to search the premises or, as the case may be,
        the vehicle, ship or aircraft.

(1A) Before or on exercising a power conferred by subsection (1), a person
authorized by such warrant shall, if requested so to do, produce evidence of
his identity and authority. (L.N. 134 of 2002)

(2) A person authorized by any such warrant to search any premises or any
vehicle, ship or aircraft may search every person who is found in, or whom he
has reasonable ground to believe to have recently left or to be about to
enter, those premises or that vehicle, ship or aircraft and may seize any
document or article found on the premises or in the vehicle, ship or aircraft
or on such person that he has reasonable ground to believe to be evidence of
the commission of an offence referred to in subsection (1) or any other
document that he has reasonable ground to believe ought to have been produced
under section 1 and may take in relation to any such document or article any
other steps that may appear necessary for preserving it and preventing
interference with it: Provided that no person shall in pursuance of any
warrant issued under this section be searched except by a person of the same
sex.

(3) Where, by virtue of this section, a person is empowered to enter any
premises, vehicle, ship or aircraft, he may use such force as is reasonably
necessary for that purpose.

(4) Any document or article of which possession is taken under this section
may be retained for a period of 3 months or, if within that period there are
commenced any proceedings for an offence referred to in subsection (1) to
which it is relevant, until the conclusion of those proceedings.

(5) No information furnished or document produced (including any copy of or
extract made of any document produced) by any person in pursuance of a request
made under this Schedule, and no document seized under subsection (2) shall be
disclosed except-

   (a)  with the consent of the person by whom the information was furnished
        or the document was produced or the person from whom the document was
        seized: Provided that a person who has obtained information or is in
        possession of a document only in his capacity as servant or agent of
        another person may not give consent for the purposes of this paragraph
        but that such consent may instead be given by any person who is
        entitled to that information or to the possession of that document in
        his own right;

   (b)  to any person who would have been empowered under this Schedule to
        request that it be furnished or produced;

   (c)  on the authority of the Chief Executive, subject to the information or
        document being transmitted through and with the approval of the
        instructing authority, to any organ of the United Nations or to any
        person in the service of the United Nations or to the Government of
        any place outside the People's Republic of China for the purpose of
        assisting the United Nations or that Government in securing compliance
        with or detecting evasion of measures in relation to a relevant person
        or a relevant undertaking decided upon by the Security Council of the
        United Nations; or (L.N. 134 of 2002)

   (d)  with a view to the institution of, or otherwise for the purposes of,
        any proceedings for an offence under this Regulation. (L.N. 134 of
        2002)

3. Any person who-

   (a)  without reasonable excuse refuses or fails within the time and in the
        manner specified (or, if no time has been specified, within a
        reasonable time) to comply with any request made under this Schedule
        by any person who is empowered to make it;

   (b)  intentionally furnishes false information or a false explanation to
        any person exercising his powers under this Schedule;

   (c)  otherwise intentionally obstructs any person in the exercise of his
        powers under this Schedule; or

   (d)  with intent to evade the provisions of this Schedule, destroys,
        mutilates, defaces, secretes or removes any document, shall be guilty
        of an offence.