But Anna Lai rejects suggestions of falling standards as conviction rates in lower courts remain stubbornly low
EDDIE.LEE@SCMP.COM
UPDATED : Saturday, 11 June, 2016, 7:51pm
Anna Lai says politics is never an issue when the Justice Department makes a prosecution decision. Photo: David Wong
Prosecution work is always hard and prosecutors must keep abreast of changes in the law and its practice to maintain public confidence in Hong Kong’s justice system, according to the city’s first female public prosecutor to be made a senior counsel.
Senior assistant director of public prosecutions Anna Lai Yuen-kee, 57, who received the top honour for local legal practitioners on Saturday, said in an interview with local media that prosecution work was held to a higher standard than ever before as the law kept advancing.
“It’s like building a brick wall,” she said. “Evidence presented by the prosecution in a criminal trial must be beyond a reasonable doubt.”
While noting there was always room for improvement in the city’s prosecution work, she rejected suggestions that their performance was deteriorating and that conviction rates in the lower courts were too low.
According to figures provided by the Department of Justice, conviction rates at magistracy level over the past six years have remained little changed at around 50 per cent after trial.
But Lai dismissed the notion that the work of prosecutors should be judged by conviction rates.
“It isn’t our job to guarantee successful conviction,”said the veteran prosecutor, stressing that a prosecutor’s primary duty was to administer and uphold justice.
“We should not just look at the results.”
Asked how she would address concerns over the apparent increase in the prosecution of individuals involved in political campaigns, Lai unequivocally rejected such views as groundless.
“I have been working in the [prosecutions division] for so many years … We are always allowed to work independently,” said Lai, who joined the department in 1991.
“Political prosecution is a term used by outsiders.”
Lai said politics never came into play when the department was making prosecution decisions.
She was one of the four people appointed senior counsels by Chief Justice Geoffrey Ma Tao-li in the Court of Final Appeal this year.
A police inspector turned prosecutor, she is best known for her intense questioning techniques, as recently demonstrated in the conviction of controversial businessman Lew Mon-hung.
Lew was accused of perverting the course of public justice by sending letters and emails to Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying and Independent Commission Against Corruption commissioner Simon Peh Yun-lu in a bid to halt a fraud investigation in 2013.
Lai also prosecuted alongside David Perry QC in 2005 in the infamous “milkshake murder” case, which put American expatriate Nancy Kissel behind bars for life for killing her husband.
Anna Lai is know for her intensive questioning technique in court. Photo: David WongThe prosecutor declined to comment on many of her cases, as certain parties to separate cases were still considering filing appeals.
But she recalled that she was deeply saddened by a kidnapping case she handled in the early 2000s.
During the trial, said Lai, a heartbroken mother had to relive the ordeal of her young son being killed by kidnappers.
“Being the prosecutor in the case, I was supposed to keep a poker face. But seeing this, I had to fight back my tears.”
Recounting her personal experiences, Lai said that as a female prosecutor she had never been discriminated against in the department.
Given that female barristers in private practice like Jacqueline Leong and Gladys Li had taken silk as early as the 1990s, Lai said she had been unaware that she would become the first woman prosecutor in the department to receive the honour.
There were many female prosecutors with extensive experience in her division, she said. “It’s just that my senior didn’t apply.”
Lai said she was thrilled to be appointed a senior counsel and looked forward to sharing her experience with colleagues.
http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-crime/article/1972869/we-must-move-times-maintain-public-trust-hong-kongs-justice
