Hefei Expat - China
China => Current Affairs => Topic started by: Aussie Mike on July 24, 2011, 02:02:42 pm
-
China's most wanted fugitive in Beijing after extradition (http://news.yahoo.com/canada-deports-alleged-smuggler-lai-china-lawyer-030307325.html)
By Sui-Lee Wee | Reuters
Alleged smuggling kingpin Lai Changxing is escorted by policemen as he signs a warrant …
BEIJING (Reuters) - China's most wanted fugitive was arrested in the capital Beijing Saturday after being deported from Canada where he lived in exile for 12 years.
Lai Changxing, 53, arrived at Beijing's international airport Saturday afternoon, where Chinese police "announced his arrest and read him his rights, including hiring lawyers to defend himself, after he was transferred by the Canadian side," state news agency Xinhua reported, citing the ministry of public security.
The extradition ended a decades-long saga that had plagued Sino-Canadian relations.
Beijing has sought the deportation of Lai, accusing him of running a multibillion-dollar smuggling operation in the southeastern city of Xiamen in the 1990s in one of China's biggest political scandals in decades.
。。。
China had promised Canada in a diplomatic note that Lai would not be tortured or executed and that Canadian officials would have access to him. But many legal experts and human rights activists said it was unlikely Lai could receive a fair trial in China.
。。。
Canada has no death penalty and will not usually extradite anyone to a state where capital punishment is practiced without assurances the suspect will not be executed.
==================================================
It's about time.