A Judiciary Police (PJ) officer has been suspended for the possession of unexplained wealth, the website of the Secretariat for Security (GSS) said Sunday.
The Secretariat for Security uploaded yesterday an update on the progress of the handling of the case, which was first revealed by the office on its website in April 2015.
The website said yesterday that the Judiciary Police have completed a disciplinary procedure against the officer, and Secretary for Security Wong Sio Chak ordered the suspension of the officer on February 4.
The website did not mention the gender of the unnamed PJ officer
According to the website, when investigating a suspected bribery case, the Commission Against Corruption (CCAC) discovered a raft of abnormal transfers deposited into the bank account of a PJ officer, who could not explain the sources of the transfers which took place between 2012 and 2014. The total amount of the transfers exceeded more than four times the income that he was supposed to have earned during this period, the website said.
According to the website, the officer concealed from the authorities the fact that his bank account had over one million patacas in it when he declared his assets. Therefore, the anti-graft body considered the PJ officer to have violated the law on public servants’ asset declaration.
According to the website, the anti-graft body reported the case to the Judiciary Police in December 2014, which then launched a disciplinary procedure against the officer. The disciplinary procedure was completed in February 2015, the findings of which showed that there was no indication that the officer had violated the relevant laws and regulations, the website said. The Judiciary Police then informed the anti-graft body of their findings of the disciplinary procedure in March 2015.
According to the website, the Judiciary Police then asked the Commission Against Corruption to provide further details about the case for the possible launch of another disciplinary procedure against the officer by the police.
According to the website, the anti-graft body provided the Judiciary Police with further details about the case on June 4, 2015. Consequently, the then PJ director ordered the launch of another disciplinary procedure against the officer the following day.
The website uploaded an update on the case, saying that Wong ordered the suspension of the officer on February 4 after the Judiciary Police had completed another disciplinary procedure against the officer.
According to the website, the CCAC has meanwhile transferred the case to the Public Prosecution Office (MP) for follow-up investigation.
Unlike its Hong Kong counterpart the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC), the CCAC does not have the power to charge suspects, which is the prerogative of the Public Prosecution Office.
Meanwhile, the GSS website also said that Wong dismissed a PJ officer on February 8 who was arrested in April last year for leaking information to at least three loan-sharking gangs about the police’s ongoing investigations into usury cases allegedly committed by the racketeers.
According to a PJ press conference in April last year about the case, the officer, who joined the Judiciary Police in 2006, was allegedly bribed by the gangs to tip them off. The aim of the data leak was for the gangs to evade detection by the police.
