China's most wanted man was back in a Canadian jail after a refugee board found he had breached his release conditions by socializing with reputed Chinese mobsters while fighting extradition to his homeland.
Adjudicator Leeann King said Lai Changxing (
"The performance bond did not prove to have the influence over your activities it was intended to," King told Lai through an interpreter on Friday, and then ordered him back to jail.
The multimillionaire, clad in a red prison garb, was led in handcuffs through a throng of TV cameras.
Mastermind?
Chinese authorities accuse Lai of being the mastermind behind a Xiamen-based network that smuggled as much as US$10 billion worth of goods with the protection from corrupt officials.
He was arrested Aug. 13 as he left a restaurant where he had been attending a birthday party for the daughter of William Chu, whom authorities allege is an associate of the Big Circle Boys, a criminal organization in the Chinese community of Vancouver.
According to Canadian Immigration and Refugee Board documents, the party was also attended by members of the Big Circle Boys, who are believed to be involved in the smuggling of drugs and people, as well as credit-card fraud and loan sharking.
Sent a gift
According to the documents, "He felt an obligation under Chinese tradition to send a gift and would have been most unhappy if he didn't attend."
Lai has been fighting deportation to China all the way to Canada's Supreme Court, claiming he would be tortured or executed if returned home.
Lai has been under house arrest, with strictly limited amount of time allowed out of the house. His attendance at the party violated both the time limitations and the terms defining who he is allowed to socialize with.
No sanctuary
In April, the Federal Court denied an appeal of a 2002 decision by Canada's refugee board to refuse Lai and his family sanctuary. That court found that Lai and his wife were fugitives from justice and that neither was a trustworthy or credible witness.
Lai and his family arrived in Canada in August 1999 after fleeing China by way of Hong Kong and applied for asylum. They said the refugee board overlooked the nature of political persecution in China, the possibility Lai could be executed and the possible use of torture in obtaining evidence against them.
Lai returns for a detention review hearing on Sept. 22.
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