Don’t be a safe haven for criminals, China urges Sweden in call to extradite fugitive Qiao Jianjun
- Chinese ambassador to Sweden Gui Congyou appeals for former grain official to be handed over to Beijing despite court ruling against extradition
Beijing has urged Stockholm to send an alleged fugitive back to China despite the Swedish Supreme Court rejecting a similar request last month.
In a meeting with a Swedish foreign ministry official, Chinese ambassador to Sweden Gui Congyou called on Stockholm to “agree to extradite Qiao Jianjun back to China as early as possible”, according to an embassy statement released on Friday.
Gui said Qiao was the “Chinese people’s most hated embezzler” and Sweden should not be a “protector” and “safe haven” for criminals.
The Swedish official agreed to convey the request to the Swedish government, the statement said.
Qiao is suspected of embezzling millions of dollars when he was director of a government grain storage facility in the central Chinese province of Hunan. He fled the country in November 2011 and spent more than six years on the run before being arrested by Swedish police on June 25 last year after a request from Beijing.
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After a hearing in mid-June, the Swedish Supreme Court turned down Beijing’s extradition request, without giving reasons for the ruling.
The court said it would it would express its opinion to the government, adding that “Qiao Jianjun should no longer be arrested in the extradition case”.
In interviews with Swedish newspapers Expressen and SVD on Wednesday, Guo said it was very hard to believe the court’s “strange ruling”.
“Relevant Chinese authorities provided concrete and detailed evidence of Qiao Jianjun’s suspected crimes to the authorities in these countries, and they confirmed the evidence through investigation,” he said.
“It is very hard to believe the Supreme Court of Sweden decided to release this serious corrupt fugitive just based on the lies of very few anti-China persons at the recent hearing for the extradition.”
Guo urged the Swedish court to “make a fair decision on the case as soon as possible … so that Qiao Jianjun can be extradited to China to be brought to justice”.
The second arrest stemmed from a number of charges, including money laundering, mounted by the US Department of Justice in 2015, according to Swedish prosecutor Marie Lind Thomsen.
“We received a [US] request for his arrest and [a notice that] we will receive from them a request for his extradition,” Thomsen was quoted by Swedish media reports as saying.
