Covert Surveillance
In 2005, the evidence collected by the ICAC through covert surveillance in a case involving a publicly listed company was questioned. While the judge ruled that covert surveillance carried out in this case was unconstitutional due to the absence of relevant legal procedures, the judge admitted the evidence as he found that the ICAC had conducted the operations in good faith. The defendants were convicted.
To address the lack of legal procedures that govern covert surveillance by law enforcement agencies, as required by the Basic Law, the LegCo passed the Interception of Communication and Surveillance Ordinance (ICSO) in August 2006 to provide for such procedures. All covert surveillance operations of the ICAC are now carried out strictly in accordance with the ICSO which applies to all law enforcement agencies in Hong Kong.
An assistant ICAC investigator was jailed for 9 months on 4 April 2003 for lying in a court trial, to conceal the fact that he had threatened a suspect to co-operate with a probe by the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC). So far, this is the only case of such a nature in ICAC history.
Read more about this topic: Independent Commission Against Corruption (Hong Kong)
Famous quotes containing the word covert:
“There was the murdered corpse, in covert laid,
And violent death in thousand shapes displayed;
The city to the soldier’s rage resigned;
Successless wars, and poverty behind;
Ships burnt in fight, or forced on rocky shores,
And the rash hunter strangled by the boars;
The newborn babe by nurses overlaid;
And the cook caught within the raging fire he made.”
—Geoffrey Chaucer (1340?–1400)