Chinese fugitive fights deportation

[grammafreddy]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-c ... aring.html

Fugitive will not get a fair trial in China, court told
CBC News
Posted: Jul 21, 2011 9:34 AM PT
Last Updated: Jul 21, 2011 4:26 PM PT


Lai Changxing, right, is escorted by a security guard from an Immigration and Refugee Board detention hearing in Vancouver on July 11. Lai Changxing, right, is escorted by a security guard from an Immigration and Refugee Board detention hearing in Vancouver on July 11. (Darryl Dyck/Canadian Press)


Chinese fugitive Lai Changxing's lawyer has told a Federal Court hearing in Vancouver that his client has become the Communist Party's poster boy for corruption.

David Matas is asking the court to stop Lai's deportation, saying he'll never get a fair trial in China because Communist officials are using him to deflect allegations of corruption against some of their own members.

"He's become the poster boy for the fight against corruption," Matas said via telephone from Berlin.

Chinese officials have assured Canada that Lai won't be executed or tortured and will get a fair trial with access to a lawyer if he's returned to face charges.

But Matas said China only provides a lawyer for a guilty plea, not to raise a defence, and he told the court Lai's brother and his accountant have both died mysteriously in prison.

"Mr. Lai could be tried, sentenced and executed and Canadian officials would never know."

Justice Michel Shore heard the case over the telephone from Ottawa.

On the phone from Vancouver, federal government lawyer Jan Brongers told Shore that China has made a rare political commitment to Canada not to put Lai to death or torture him.

Going back on that promise would damage China's international reputation, Brongers told the judge, who was listening from Ottawa.

"To put it as plainly as possible, if they [renege] on the deal it will make it much more difficult for China to persuade other countries that it is safe to repatriate alleged fugitives back to China for trial," Brongers said.

Shore is expected to issue a ruling by Friday morning.

Lai's release overturned

Lai was still in custody on Thursday, despite an order issued by Canada's Immigration and Refugee Board for his release.

Lai was ordered released on Wednesday after an adjudicator with the board ruled he was a not a flight risk.

But lawyers for the Canadian Border Services Agency disagreed and took the release order to Federal Court on Wednesday afternoon where it was overturned by a judge.

Lai has been fighting his deportation to China for more than a decade after fleeing to Canada in 1999 to escape corruption charges.

Feds claim Chinese fugitive Lai Changxing dealt with Vancouver gangsters

By Sarah Douziech, The Province July 19, 2011


Lai Changxing appears by video conference in front of refugee board for his seven-day detention hearing in Vancouver on Monday, July 18, 2011.
Photograph by: Glenn Baglo, PNG

In a detention review hearing for China’s most wanted fugitive, Lai Changxing, federal ministry immigration lawyers made the unusual move of calling a witness to testify on the hearing’s first day.

Lai arrived in Canada in 1999 and has been fighting deportation back to China ever since. China has accused him of masterminding a $10-billion importation racket by bribing importation officials.

Lai seemed to have run out of appeals after the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) ordered his removal from Canada earlier this month. But he will get one last appeal at a hearing July 21, when his lawyers will argue he can’t get a fair trial in China, and he can’t depend on assurances extracted from the Chinese government by Canada that he will not be tortured or arbitrarily executed.

At Monday’s hearing, a special detective with the Vancouver police’s criminal-intelligence section testified a reliable source had seen Lai facilitating a local illegal gaming business and associating with notorious loan shark Betty Yan as well as members of an Asian criminal gang.

Det. James Fisher said his source saw Lai at a home on Gilbert Road in Richmond in 2009, where he was allegedly facilitating illegal online gambling with players in Macau.

Fisher said his source confirmed Lai gave players access to Yan, with whom he shared profits from high rates of interest garnered from borrowers.

Yan was gunned down outside an illegal Richmond gambling parlour in 2009.

Fisher also said his source saw Lai allegedly associate with two known members of the Asian crime group Big Circle Boys, as well as a son-in-law of another known gang member.

One of the conditions of Lai’s release in Canada was that he not communicate with known criminals.

Rather than cross-examine Fisher, Lai’s lawyer Darryl Larson was granted an adjournment to the meeting until Tuesday.

Larson said outside the hearing he was surprised at the timing of the allegations mentioned by Fisher.

“Obviously they’ve been around since 2009,” Larson said. “I think it just shows the desperation of the [Canadian Border Services Agency] to try to put anything [forward] they can to keep Mr. Lai detained.”

“They want to portray him as a criminal, as part of organized crime, even though Detective Constable Fisher said he believed [Lai] wasn’t a member of organized crime.”

Larson said he needed time to speak to Lai about the allegations, which he questioned as they had come from an unnamed criminal.

Lai is expected to be deported July 25, but if he wins his case, he will likely remain in Canada as a free man indefinitely, albeit in legal limbo.

Lai appeared at Monday’s hearing via live video feed from Fraser Regional Correction Centre, where he is being held. Because the hearing was plagued with delays due to technical issues, Larson said Lai would appear in person Tuesday.

— with Postmedia files

[Treblehook]

Who cares? Seems this scumbag came to Canada to escape prosecution for crimes he committed in China and he [and others like him] are an embarassment to Canada and Canadians. I am told that when in China, Canadians are frequently asked byChinese citizens, why our country protects Chinese criminals who have migrated here to escape prosecution. There are apparently many, many such Chinese criminals living in Canada. Something is definitely wrong with our immigration laws and the effectiveness of immigration processes when these people can enter Canada in the first place. Apparently this most recent character in the news has been a concern to Chinese authorities and the Chinese population for a long time. And we actually listen to jerk like this whining about the treatment he may get if extradicted back to be held accountable.

[Bsuds]

Not to mention he has been linked to crime here too! Send him back on the first available transport!

[Smurf]

Should we give him a parachute when we drop him off?

[grammafreddy]

He's gone.

[Bsuds]

Not fast enough or far enough!

[grammafreddy]

Should we give him a parachute when we drop him off?

Not unless he pays for it - otherwise just open the door mid-flight and shove.

[Oxl3y]

Who cares? Seems this scumbag came to Canada to escape prosecution for crimes he committed in China and he [and others like him] are an embarassment to Canada and Canadians. I am told that when in China, Canadians are frequently asked byChinese citizens, why our country protects Chinese criminals who have migrated here to escape prosecution. There are apparently many, many such Chinese criminals living in Canada. Something is definitely wrong with our immigration laws and the effectiveness of immigration processes when these people can enter Canada in the first place. Apparently this most recent character in the news has been a concern to Chinese authorities and the Chinese population for a long time. And we actually listen to jerk like this whining about the treatment he may get if extradicted back to be held accountable.

There should be some interaction between our immigration department and the Chinese government when someone wants to move here. Your identification should have to clear to prove you are not a criminal fleeing the country, I didn't bring my passport once returning from the states back home and was barely allowed into the country why should it be any easier for an immigrant.

I think we still treat china like "big bad commies" immigrants are akin to refugees we need to update our thinking and establish a better working relationship (hell they are likely to be the main superpower in the world soon enough).