The Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) on Tuesday said that it had not received a request from the Hong Kong Police Force for information regarding a Taiwanese suspected of robbing a shopkeeper in the territory and fleeing to Taiwan.
The comments came after Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post reported that authorities in the territory were trying to confirm the identity of the suspect with Taiwanese authorities.
On Oct. 6, a Taiwanese national allegedly wielded a toy gun and threatened an employee of a shop in Tsim Sha Tsui and stole two watches worth HK$990,000 (US$126,407), the newspaper said.
Surveillance footage showed the thief escaping by taxi to Hong Kong International Airport and taking a flight to Taiwan, the newspaper said, adding that police later determined that the suspect held a Republic of China passport.
“Prosecution is unlikely unless the suspect returns to Hong Kong,” the South China Morning Post said, likening the case to that of Chan Tong-kai (陳同佳), a Hong Kong resident who is accused of murdering his pregnant girlfriend, Poon Hiu-wing (潘曉穎), while visiting Taiwan last year before returning home.
However, the bureau rejected the link, saying that a robbery is a completely different matter than murder.
If a Taiwanese is suspected of committing a robbery in Hong Kong, Taiwan’s judiciary has the jurisdiction to prosecute them, the Ministry of Justice said.
Article 48 of the Act Governing Relations with Hong Kong and Macau (香港澳門關係條例) stipulates that the Criminal Code is applicable to Taiwanese who commit crimes in the territories that are punishable by a minimum penalty of a three-year jail term, such as robbery, the ministry said.
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