HKSAR v. FAHEEN CHAUDHRY MUHAMMAD

HCMA233/2007

IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE

(Appellate Jurisdiction)

MAGISTRACY APPEAL NO.233 OF 2007

(ON APPEAL FROM KCCC 574 OF 2007)

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Before : Deputy High Court Judge D. Pang in Court

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Reasons  for  JUDGMENT

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1. The appellant was convicted on his own plea of one count of ‘remaining unlawfully’ contrary to section 38(1)(b) of the Immigration Ordinance, Cap. 115.  He was sentenced to 15 months’ imprisonment.  The appellant appeals against that sentence.             

2. At 9:10 p.m. on 18 January 2007, police officers were deployed to Pei Ho Street, Shamshuipo for a case of ‘drunk person’.  There they found the appellant who was either unable or unwilling to produce any document of identification.  It was only after he was taken to the hospital and had had some treatment that he surrendered his Pakistani passport for inspection.  It showed he left Pakistan on 21 November 2006 and arrived China on the 30^th.  There was no further immigration record and the appellant admitted himself to be an illegal immigrant.  He has two previous convictions.

3. In the court below, the appellant had advanced all sorts of mitigation that the magistrate dismissed as either untrue or irrelevant.  Before me, he said he was a foreigner and did not know the offence would carry such a heavy penalty.  He also asked me to take into account the fact that his legs were broken.

4. Plainly, this appeal has no merit.  It is dismissed.