Lai Changxing, the alleged mastermind of a multi-billion-dollar
smuggling racket in southeast China's Fujian
Province, has been wanted by the authorities back in China for
five years. Lai was charged with being responsible for smuggling
US$10 billion worth of goods in collaboration with corrupt
officials, the biggest smuggling operation uncovered in China since
1949.
Lai began to apply for a refugee status as soon as he arrived in
Canada in August 1999. In February 2004 the Canadian Federal Court
ruled to reject his appeal for "refugee status."
Vincent Cheng Yang is a senior research fellow with the
Vancouver-based International Center for Criminal Law Reform and
Criminal Justice Policy. He came to Beijing for the weeklong 17th
International Congress on Penal Law that opened on September
13.
China Youth Daily reports Yang's views on the Lai
extradition case.
According to Yang, Lai is now in a lawsuit against the Canadian
government. The court will probably not come to a decision on this
until next year. His case is now within the jurisdiction of the
Federal Court, which has placed a restriction on his movements as a
precaution against him absconding. He will have only a few hours of
personal freedom of movement each day until the court gives down
its final decision.
"Suppose the Federal Court decision comes out next June," Yang
said. "Whichever party loses the lawsuit, whether it is Lai
Changxing or the Canadian government, they won't take it lying down
and will surely lodge an appeal with the Supreme Court of Canada.
This procedure usually takes several months. Then several more
months will go by while the Supreme Court decides whether or not to
hear the case. If the Supreme Court does eventually decide to allow
the appeal, it will then take a long time for the case to be
concluded. So judicially speaking, there is little prospect of an
early repatriation for Lai Changxing."
So what is actually making the resolution of Lai's case so
time-consuming?
"First of all Lai is a Chinese citizen alleged to have committed
crimes in China. Such criminal acts would not fall under the
jurisdiction of the Canadian courts," said Yang.
"Evidence gathering is another thorny problem. To investigate
Lai's claim of eligibility for 'refugee status,' the Canadian
government has already spent a tremendous amount of time collecting
evidence from China to prove Lai's asylum claim is untenable. In
fact Lai's case shows how experienced lawyers can use evidence
issues to play for time in the Canadian court system," said
Yang.
"Meanwhile Canadian judges are not familiar with Chinese law.
They would rather err on the side of caution and devote extra time
to handling cases in which Chinese citizens are implicated. In
short, it seems that as long as Lai has the money to engage
lawyers, the lawsuit may drag on endlessly," said Yang.
Canada is currently a favorite destination for China's fugitive
corrupt officials. So far, not one has ever been extradited back to
China.
Although the two countries signed a Treaty on Judicial
Assistance in Criminal Cases as far back as 1994, the effective
implementation of the agreement has run into problems. In addition,
since there is a wide discrepancy between their views on human
rights, especially on the issue of the death penalty, the two sides
have not yet concluded a full extradition treaty.
In order to facilitate the pursuit of its fugitive corrupt
officials, Yang suggests that China should enter into agreements
with the Western countries to split any money recovered.
In recent years China and Canada have intensified their judicial
cooperation. The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA)
has built and maintained a long-term partnership with China.
The two countries cooperate mainly through three main programs.
The recently launched Sino-Canadian procuratorial reform and
exchange program is set to run for five years. The Sino-Canadian
legal aid and community legal services program started this year.
Skills training for criminal defense counsels has been co-hosted by
the Chinese Lawyers Association and the Canadian Lawyers
Association for many years.
(China.org.cn by Shao Da, September 27, 2004)