Page:Rules and Directions for the Questioning of Suspects and the Taking of Statements.pdf/1

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RULES AND DIRECTIONS FOR THE QUESTIONING OF SUSPECTS AND THE TAKING OF STATEMENTS 2 October 1992 Notice is hereby given that with effect from 1 October 1992, the Secretary for Security promulgated the following Rules and Directions for law enforcement officers in the Royal Hong Kong Police Force, the Customs and Excise Department, the Immigration Department and the Independent Commission Against Corruption to follow in questioning suspects and taking statements: NOTE These Rules do not affect the principles
 * (a) That citizens have a duty to help a police officer to discover and apprehend offenders;
 * (b) That police officers, otherwise than by arrest, cannot compel any person against his will to come to or remain in any police station;
 * (c) That every person at any stage of an investigation should be able to communicate and to consult privately with a solicitor or barrister. This is so even if he is in custody, provided that in such a case no unreasonable delay or hindrance is caused to the processes of investigation or the administration of justice by his doing so;
 * (d) That when a police officer who is making enquiries of any person about an offence has enough evidence to prefer a charge against that person for the offence, he should without delay cause that person to be charged or informed that he may be prosecuted for the offence; and
 * (e) That it is a fundamental condition of the admissibility in evidence against any person, equally of any oral answer given by that person to a question put by a police officer and of any statement made by that person, that it shall have been voluntary, in the sense that it has not been obtained from him by fear of prejudice or hope of advantage, exercised or held out by a person in authority, or by oppression.

That principle set out in paragraph (e) above is overriding and applicable in all cases. Within that principle the following Rules and Directions are put forward as a guide to all police officers conducting investigations. Non-conformity with these Rules and Directions may render answers and statements liable to be excluded from evidence in subsequent criminal proceedings.