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Expanding extradition cooperation important for China's fugitive hunt: diplomat

Xinhua, April 30, 2015 Adjust font size:

A senior European Union diplomat has said it is necessary for China in its campaign against corruption to expand the extradition cooperation with other countries to track down fugitive corrupt officials holed up abroad.

Serge Abou, who was former EU ambassador to China from 2005 to 2011, made the remarks in a recent interview with Xinhua, as China launched a fresh anti-corruption campaign code-named "Sky Net" that aims to repatriate Chinese suspected of official or economic corruption.

Abou said he observed that China had made more and more anti-corruption actions at present, and they have shown the country's active and positive attitude in fighting against corruption.

Talking about the international anti-corruption cooperation, Abou suggested China expand the number of the extradition agreements with other countries.

He said as each case has to go to court, and the court makes the decision on whether to exercise extradition on the basis of law, so it would be important for China to expand the coverage of the justice cooperation.

Secondly, Abou said that it would be necessary to improve the quality of China's current extradition agreements with other countries.

He thought that many corruption cases were related to economic crimes, and money or fiscal matters were usually very complicated and may encounter different explanation on how to determine the guilt and weigh up the penalty in different countries.

Abou also said that information sharing played an important role in international anti-corruption campaign. Moreover, if the country where the fugitive is holed up has relevant legal legislations, the country should exercise strong law enforcement capabilities.

Last year, China wrapped up negotiations on extradition or administrative judicial treaties with 10 countries including France, Spain, Britain and Italy.

As of November 2014, China has concluded a total of 39 extradition treaties, including 29 that have taken effect; and 52 criminal judicial assistance treaties, with 46 already in force.

An economic fugitive was returned to China from Greece earlier in April, but China has no extradition treaty with Greece.

China considers this individual extradition case as a good example for the future international law enforcement cooperation with other European countries. Endit