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Lai missing home, may come back

By Cui Jia and Xie Chuanjiao (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-08-07 07:42

Lai Changxing, China's most-wanted fugitive, might get a lenient sentence if he returns voluntarily after spending almost a decade hiding in Canada, Chinese legal experts said yesterday.

The 51-year-old Lai reportedly expressed his desire to return to "his motherland" during an interview with the Chinese Business View (CBV) in Vancouver, Canada, CBV reported yesterday.

"I've been under a lot of pressure in the past 10 years, both financially and mentally," said Lai, who allegedly masterminded a smuggling scheme involving $10 billion that touched off a high-profile corruption scandal in East China's Fujian province in the 1990s.

Lai's ex-wife, Zeng Mingna, who divorced Lai in 2005 in Canada, has returned to China along with their daughter on their own, Jason Kenney, Canada's minister of citizenship, immigration and multiculturalism confirmed on Wednesday.

"The reason why Lai's ex-wife is permitted to return to China (without impediments) is that they are now divorced and she cannot be used anymore," David Matas, Lai's lawyer, told China Daily yesterday.

Lai was quoted as saying he always wanted to return to China. He has kept regular contact with his relatives in his hometown - Jinjiang of Fujian.

Lai did not deny allegations against him of tax evasion and tax fraud, and said he was prepared for imprisonment, the CBV reported. Beside tax evasion and fraud, Lai was charged with smuggling and bribery, which he failed to mention in the CBV report.

His company, Yuanhua, which means Fair Well, was allegedly a front for smuggling everything from cigarettes and guns to cars and oil into China without paying duties.

Canadian officials, however, have been unwilling to allow Lai's extradition because he could be sentenced to death, although China has promised not to give Lai the death sentence.

China's former ambassador to Canada, Mei Ping, said in June when he was in Canada that Lai was the major obstacle to China having a closer relationship with Canada, according to Canada-based Global Chinese Press.

Mei said among the 40-50 names on the most-wanted list of fugitives compiled by the Chinese government, half are hiding in Canada.

"I have no objections if the Canadian government finally decided to deport me, but I will never stop appealing," Lai told the CBV.

Lai, his wife and their three children fled to Canada from Hong Kong in 1999 to seek asylum and escape prosecution.

They applied for political refugee status in 2000, but were turned down by the Canadian government in 2004.

"The Canadian government is still conducting the risk assessment of Lai's asylum application," Lai's lawyer Matas said.

Although a work permit from the Canadian immigration department was granted to Lai in February, Lai's status as an illegal immigrant remained unchanged.

"Because Lai is still an illegal immigrant in Canada, the repatriation of him is simply a matter of time," said Huang Feng, a law professor in the Beijing Normal University and an expert on extradition.

"If Lai is forced to be repatriated, he might not be allowed to go back to Canada for good. But if he voluntarily asks to be deported, he may be allowed by Canadian authorities to return in the future," the professor told China Daily.

Moreover, if he voluntarily returns to China and makes a good confession in the trial, he might get a lenient sentence, Huang said.

"Lai is still a Chinese citizen, so the government is obligated to receive him and protect him no matter what situation he had been involved in before fleeing to Canada," Huang said.

"Choosing to voluntarily be deported is at least a better choice than being forcibly deported."

Tong Jianming, spokesman of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, yesterday declined to comment on Lai's overture.

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Lai should have been sent back and sentenced a long time ago, said an anonymous ex-employee of Fujian-based Kaiyuan Foreign Trade Group, which was implicated in Lai's smuggling case.

"It's a domestic case and it should be dealt in the country without intervention," he added.

Kenney, the Canadian official, said in an interview with Vancouver-based Omini TV station that Lai was not the obstacle between the developments of Canada-China relation, because both China and Canada knew the case was before the Canadian court that neither government has any power on.

Chen Zhiming contributed to the story