The Polish Supreme Court on Jan 15 overturned a lower court’s green light for the extradition of a Chinese-born Swedish entrepreneur called Li Zhihui to China for alleged fraud, a charge he has denied, claiming that he is being targeted for supporting Falun Gong and for quitting the Chinese Communist Party (1). But the case would be returned to a lower court for review. Li has been detained in the same cell as former Huawei CEO Weijing Wang, who was arrested in 2019 inPoland on charges of spying for Beijing (2). This arrangement in itself may pose a threat to Li's life (By Chapman Chen, HKBNews)
“It’s certainly a good decision at this stage, but we still can’t call it a success,” Li's Polish lawyer Krzysztof Kitajgrodzki told reporters, adding that the Supreme Court has required that the lower court ask China to explain the nature of the sentence his client faces. Regardless of any court ruling on the matter, under Polish law the minister of justice has the final say on extradition requests.
"If Poland transfers me to China, I will be killed", said the activist in an interview with TVN.
According to Article 11 of the Agreement between the Hong Kong and Polish Governments concerning mutual assistance in criminal matters, "a person in the custody of the Requesting Party whose presence in the Requested Party is sought for the purposes of assistance under this Agreement shall be temporarily transferred from the Requesting Party to the Requested Party if the person consents and if the Central Authorities of both Parties agree." But "the receiving Party shall not require the sending Party to initiate extradition proceedings or any other proceedings for the return of the person transferred." And the agreement shall not apply to political prosecutions.
Pic credit: PolishNews
Notes:
AFP, Warsaw
Go Against the Tide, Idzpodprad
Web link: https://www.hkbnews.net/post/swedish-chinese-falun-gong-activist-jailed-w--huawei-spy-could-be-extradited-to-china-from-poland