The Secretary for Security, Wong Sio Chak, defended this week the need for an extradition agreement between Macau and Mainland China, an issue that has already given rise to a long debate in recent years.
Security Secretary Wong Sio Chak defended the need to reach an agreement with mainland China for a judicial cooperation agreement that includes the possibility of extradition.
“It is very important in the long term and worth discussing an agreement on mutual assistance in judicial and criminal matters,” Wong told reporters after a session of the Legislative Assembly on Monday, according to Chinese-language Radio Macau.
“If there is [an agreement], there will be a basis for handing over criminals, mutual recognition of evidence and claims for damages.”
The issue was raised in relation to possible crimes committed by drivers from Mainland China in Macau, taking into account the measure of mutual recognition of driving licenses, which comes into force in the month of May.
In 2015, a proposed law to establish a judicial cooperation agreement between Macau, Hong Kong and Mainland China was withdrawn from the Legislative Assembly due to technical problems.
In early 2019, the then Secretary for Administration and Justice, Sónia Chan, even mentioned that Macau had reached a consensus with Beijing on the start of work for the transfer of convicts.
However, in the aftermath of protests in Hong Kong against the proposed law that provides for the possibility of extradition to mainland China, the Secretary declined to comment on the progress of the negotiations, pointing only that the existence of different legal regimes between the three parties [Hong Kong , Macau and China], required “consensus” and “further negotiation”.
In the same year, precisely, the issue of the extradition of offenders between Macau and mainland China led the Portuguese Bar Association to contest an extradition agreement between Portugal and the Macao SAR.
An agreement for the “Delivery of Fleeing Offenders” was approved in May 2019 by the then Minister of Justice, Francisca Van Dunem, and the Secretary for Administration and Justice, Sónia Chan.
The Bar Association considered that an agreement between Macau and China for the extradition of fugitives could lead to Portugal indirectly extraditing someone to China.
The agreement was officially published in the Official Gazette in the Macao SAR, but has not yet been ratified in Portugal.
