The Prague High Court has decided to extradite four Taiwanese fraud suspects to China, Taiwan’s representative office in the Czech Republic said on Monday.
The ruling came despite efforts by the office to discuss the issue with Czech authorities and its warnings to the Czech Ministry of Justice about China’s poor human rights record.
The four were among eight Taiwanese fraud suspects arrested by the Czech police last year, Czech newspaper Denik N reported.
The eight are accused of defrauding Chinese citizens out of 1 million euros (US$1.12 million) via Internet phone services, the newspaper said.
The Chinese government filed a motion with the court demanding that four of the suspects be deported to China for trial, which was approved by the court, it said.
The court said Chinese authorities guaranteed that the suspects would be given a fair trial and would not face capital punishment, the newspaper said.
Jan Levy, a lawyer representing the suspects, is to appeal the ruling on the grounds that it breached the country’s constitution, the report said.
The other four suspects are to stand trial in the Czech Republic, the office said.
Office officials told the Central News Agency that the eight were arrested in January last year after the Czech police issued an Interpol “red notice,” an alert circulated by Interpol to communicate information about crimes and criminals.
They said the office tried to convince Czech judicial authorities that the suspects should be deported to Taiwan for investigation in accordance with the principle of nationality, but their pleas were rejected.
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