Beijing's late move in extradition fight over fugitive accountant revealed

A Spanish court freed a fugitive accountant wanted by Hong Kong over an alleged multimillion-dollar fraud despite an eleventh-hour intervention by Beijing, the Sunday Morning Post has learned.

The Department of Justice confirmed that Hong Kong filed a "direct statement" by the central government to the Constitutional Court of Spain in a bid to secure the return of Gabriel Ricardo Dias-Azedo.

It is alleged he fled the city in 2009 after fleecing investors out of more than HK$90 million.

But Spain's top court refused to take the Beijing statement - which is understood to have given a clear assurance of Hong Kong's legal independence - into account before it freed Azedo, 65, whose whereabouts are now unknown.

After an extradition battle lasting more than two years, the court ruled Hong Kong had no power to ask for Azedo's return because it was not a sovereign state and did not have a reciprocal extradition treaty with Spain.

In a legal first, Hong Kong officials had been trying to secure his return under the United Nations Convention Against Corruption, a multilateral agreement adopted by 140 signatories, including mainland China and Spain.

Spain's government had earlier approved the request from Hong Kong as a part of China.