The Central Government can issue a directive to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region’s Chief Executive to do or not to do a surrender concerning things which have serious impact on foreign affairs or defence only after a notification by the HKSAR Government.

Secretary for Security John Lee made the statement after attending the Legislative Council Panel on Security meeting on the fugitive bill today.

Mr Lee noted there are several steps in handling the surrender of fugitives according to Section 24 of the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance.

He said: “The Central Government is on notification by the HKSARG. After the notification, after the due process has been completed, of course, we will also have to report to the Central Government about the Chief Executive's decision to surrender a particular fugitive.

“After all these steps, according to Section 24, the Central Government can issue a directive to the Chief Executive if there are things that have serious impact on foreign affairs (or defence). But it will only happen on notification by, first of all, the HKSARG, so this is a procedure that will happen after the first step of notification.

“If the HKSARG does not notify because the HKSARG does not consider this is a case worth dealing with, then there is no notification given to the Central Government.

“So Subsection 3 of Section 24 in which the Central Government can give directive would not happen.”