A New Zealander’s 13-year-long battle to avoid facing trial in China is yet again headed to the courts, after the new Government signed a fresh surrender order for his case.
South Korean citizen and New Zealand resident Kyung Yup Kim stands accused of murdering Peiyun Chen in Shanghai in 2009, with Chinese authorities writing to the Government in 2011 to seek his extradition.
While the National government at the time approved the extradition, legal challenges related to concerns about the integrity of the Chinese judicial process and whether Kim would receive fair treatment have repeatedly delayed his removal.
In 2022, the Supreme Court ruled the government could be satisfied by China’s assurances that Kim would not face an unfair trial or be subjected to torture, clearing the way for his extradition to take place, while a separate attempt by Kim’s legal representatives to ask the United Nations Human Rights Committee to consider his case also failed.
In a statement, Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith told Newsroom: “I can confirm that I have signed a surrender order for Mr Kim.
“Mr Kim has filed judicial review proceedings and so I cannot comment further while the matter is before the courts.”
Kim’s lawyer Ben Keith told Newsroom he was unable to comment given the matter was before the courts.
The Government had signalled late last year that it would again sign off on the extradition, with The Post reporting the minister had told Kim’s lawyers he would order his surrender on or after January 31.
At the time, Kim’s former lawyer Tony Ellis (who has since retired) told The Post his legal representatives were planning a fresh court challenge, based on deteriorating conditions within the Chinese system over recent years as well as concerns about his client’s health.
Kim’s case has been watched closely around the world, given concerns about the independence of China’s judiciary and whether alleged criminals extradited there to stand trial can have their rights upheld.
In 2022, the European Court of Human Rights blocked the extradition of a Taiwanese national from Poland to China, citing a “general situation of violence” in the Chinese prison system and saying Chinese authorities had failed to provide sufficient assurances that the man would not face ill-treatment. A number of European nations’ courts have since blocked attempted extraditions to China, following the ruling.
The human rights NGO Safeguard Defenders reported in mid-2023 that China’s conviction rate for 2022 had reached a record high of 99.975 percent. The country’s courts have previously disavowed the concept of judicial independence as a Western ideology which threatened the country’s leadership.
Earlier this month, Australian media published a video of Chinese police flying to Fiji in 2017 to carry out raids against alleged cyber scammers, with 77 suspects loaded onto a charter plane back to China in a rendition that took place outside of the Pacific nation’s legal system.
Fiji’s prime minister Sitiveni Rabuka has reacted to the story with outrage, with the ABC reporting he had ordered Chinese police officers to leave the country and would keep a police cooperation agreement under constant review.
