HONG KONG Law and Practice Contributed by: Gareth Hughes, Emily Lam, Philip Rohlik and Tiffany Wu, Debevoise & Plimpton LLP
powers to investigate corruption, including the following: • the power to arrest without warrant any person who is reasonably suspected of com - mitting an offence under POBO and to enter and search any premises for the purpose of effecting such arrest if there is reason to believe that the person to be arrested is on the relevant premises; • the power to search (without warrant in cer - tain circumstances) any person reasonably suspected of committing any offence under POBO and any premises in which such per - son was (or is to be) arrested or that is other - wise reasonably believed to contain evidence of the offence, and to seize or detain anything that is reasonably believed to be or to contain evidence of the offence; • the power to require (with leave of the court) the production of documents and disclosure of information where there is reasonable cause to believe that the documents and information are likely to be relevant to the investigation of, or proceedings relating to, an offence under POBO; • the power to apply to the court for a restrain - ing order, requiring any person being inves - tigated or prosecuted for an offence under POBO or any other person holding property on behalf of such person to refrain from disposing or dealing with any property in their possession except in accordance with the conditions imposed by the court; and • the power to apply to the court for a writ - ten notice requiring any person who is being investigated for any offence under POBO rea - sonably suspected to have been committed by them to surrender any travel documents in their possession.
Following investigation, pursuant to Section 31(1) of POBO, the consent of the Secretary for Justice is required for prosecuting bribery offences under POBO. The ICAC also works with other law enforcement agencies in Hong Kong to combat corruption in specific sectors. For instance, the ICAC signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the SFC in 2019 to strengthen their co-operation in combat - ing illegal activities, including corruption, which damage the integrity of Hong Kong’s securities and futures markets. Such co-operation enables the ICAC to benefit from the investigative fruits of the other law enforcement agencies. This is particularly significant in the case of the SFC, as a person interviewed by the SFC for a suspected breach or contravention of the Securities and Futures Ordinance (Cap 571) does not have the right to remain silent. Although the use of the compelled information as evidence in criminal proceedings against the interviewee is prohib - ited, such evidence may be used against others, and use of information derived from the com - pelled information against the interviewee and others is also permitted. 7.3 Jurisdictional Reach of Enforcement Bodies The jurisdictional reach of the ICAC is defined by the scope of the bribery offences under POBO. For details, see 3.2 Geographical Reach of Applicable Legislation . 7.4 Discretion for Mitigation and Aggravation Mitigating factors, such as self-reporting and voluntary co-operation with the authorities, if significant, could lead to a decision by the ICAC or the Secretary for Justice not to prosecute. If the decision is made to prosecute, such conduct is likely to result in the court imposing a reduced
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