Canada slams door on Chinese fugitive

Canadian Press

(Vancouver) China's most wanted fugitive was denied refugee status by a
federal appeal court judge on Tuesday. The ruling upholds a decision in
June 2002 by a refugee board panel that found alleged smuggling kingpin Lai
Changxing and his wife, Tsang Mingna, did not meet the standards required
to be considered refugees.

In my opinion, the [refugee board] panel's findings that none of the claims
of the members were within the definition of Convention refugee... was
reasonably supportable on the evidence before the panel, wrote Justice
Andrew MacKay of the Federal Court of Canada.

Mr. Lai, a peasant-turned-billionaire accused of masterminding a huge
smuggling and bribery scheme in China, won't immediately be deported with
Ms Tsang. Instead, the two have recourse in a further appeal process known
as a risk of return review, conducted by the federal Immigration
Department. Their lawyer has said previously that the case could eventually
end up in the Supreme Court of Canada.

Chinese authorities have accused Mr. Lai of being the brains behind an
elaborate scheme responsible for smuggling as much as $10-billion (U.S.)
worth of goods into the country with protection from corrupt Chinese
officials.

The Federal Court mandate was to determine if the refugee panel made
reasonable findings, not to decide on its own the guilt or innocence of the
persons. In its 294-page decision released in June 2002, the refugee board
panel found Mr. Lai and Ms. Tsang were not credible and that there were
serious reasons for considering Mr. Lai had committed the crimes of
smuggling and bribery. The panel also found there were serious reasons for
considering that Mr. Lai's wife had also smuggled.

Immigration Department lawyers told the refugee panel and the court that
Mr. Lai and Ms. Tsang do not fit the criteria of convention refugees, which
apply to people who have a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of
race, religion, nationality, membership in a social group or political
opinion.

Mr. Lai, through his lawyer David Matas, appealed the panel decision to the
Federal Court, which heard arguments over five days last year. Options open
to the court included overturning the findings of the refugee board panel
and ordering a new hearing before a different panel. Mr. Matas devoted much
of his argument before the refugee panel and at the court to his contention
that Mr. Lai would be executed if returned to China, despite Chinese
government assurances to the contrary.

He also told the judge that numerous statements implicating Mr. Lai and Ms.
Tsang, given by alleged former associates, could not be trusted because
Canadian authorities don't know if they were voluntary or extracted through
torture and intimidation.

Immigration Canada lawyer Esta Resnick had argued that the Federal Court,
like the refugee panel, must assume the statements are voluntary. Mr. Matas
countered that the refugee panel should have made its own findings and not
simply follow the Chinese courts' findings of fact.

Mr. Lai arrived in Canada with his family in August 1999 and was arrested
more than a year later while gambling at a Niagara Falls, Ont., casino. His
wife was picked up the same day in the Vancouver suburb of Burnaby. Since
his arrest, his fate has been a major topic of discussions between Canada
and China, which has said repeatedly that the case was the country's
biggest scandal.

The Communist country's top leaders waded in, and former president Jiang
Zemin once assured former prime minister Jean Chrtien that Mr. Lai would
not be executed if returned. Mr. Matas told the refugee panel and the
Federal Court that China's assurances can't be trusted since some others
accused along with Mr. Lai already have been executed.

Immigration contends that the couple and their company smuggled cigarettes,
heating and cooking oil, textiles, chemicals and other raw materials into
China through Hong Kong. The alleged crimes are outlined in volumes of
documents and statements compiled by Chinese authorities.


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