New Zealand Court rules man can be extradited to China
New Zealand's top court has ruled that a male prisoner can be extradited to China to face a murder charge, a landmark judgement that goes against the trend set by most democratic nations.
In a 3 - 2 decision, the Supreme Court found that China was able to give New Zealand officials sufficient assurances that the accused South Korean citizen Kyung Yup Kim could get a fair trial and would not be tortured.
Concerns over those issues have been enough to stop most democratic countries from extraditing suspects to China in recent times.
Like many other nations, New Zealand does not have a formal extradition treaty with China.
Lawyers say they will file a complaint.
The lawyers of Mr Kim said they would try to stop his extradition, first by filing a complaint with the UN Human Rights Committee and then filing a new judicial review based on Mr Kim's poor health.
Tony Ellis, a lawyer, said Mr Kim was very disappointed by the judgement.
He said his client was in a suicidal state due to health issues, which included severe depression, a small brain tumour, and liver and kidney disease.
According to court documents, Mr Kim is a South Korean citizen who moved with his family to New Zealand more than 30 years ago when he was 14.
Ellis said he had difficulty understanding the decision given that most countries have stopped extraditing people to China for the past 10 years.
He said that almost every suspect in China pleaded guilty before going to trial because they knew that if they did not they would be tortured.
He said that China might see the decision as an encouragement to start extradition cases against people who had fled the country and been accused of economic crimes.
New Zealand's Justice Minister, Kris Faafoi, didn't want to comment on the case.
In 2011, he was arrested after China asked to extradite him on one count of intentional homicide.
He was incarcerated in New Zealand jails for more than five years and spent another three years on electronic monitoring, making him the longest serving prisoner not to face a trial in modern New Zealand.
Mr. Kim is accused of killing a 20-year-old waitress and sex worker in Shanghai after he went to the city to visit a different woman who was his girlfriend at the time.
Ms Chen's body was found in a Shanghai wasteland on New Year's Eve in 2009. An autopsy concluded that she had been strangled to death and had also been hit in the head with a blunt object.
Chinese police say they have forensic and circumstantial evidence linking Mr Kim to the crime, including a quilt found with the body.
Police say a distraught Mr Kim told an acquaintance he might have beaten a prostitute to death. Kim says he is innocent. His defence case would be that his former girlfriend, who had Communist Party connections, was responsible for the crime.
New Zealand's Supreme Court overturned an earlier appeals court ruling, overturning a previous appeals court ruling.
In an odd twist, two judges on the Supreme Court recused themselves because they had sat on the appeals court before being promoted to the top court, where both had ruled against the extradition.
The Supreme Court found that China was able to give sufficient assurance that Mr Kim would be jailed in Shanghai, where New Zealand consulate staff could monitor him before and during his trial. That would include visits at least every second day before his trial and at other times he requested.
China told officials that if convicted, Mr Kim would serve his prison sentence in Shanghai.
The court concluded that if no substantial grounds exist for believing an individual is at risk of torture because of the assurances provided, the individual should not avoid prosecution for a serious crime. Mr Kim's lawyers failed to argue that consular staff could not adequately monitor Mr Kim while he was in jail, especially if he was subject to torture that was hard to detect, such as forced drugging.