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SCMP Reporter

Chan Chi-wai,  a Hongkonger convicted for one of Canada's most infamous kidnappings, escaped from a British Columbia  prison in December, just one day after his sentence had been reduced on appeal to time served. 
The escape from a minimumsecurity prison near Vancouver prompted speculation that Chan, 35, had run to avoid deportation to Hong Kong following his release. 
But Chan's time on the lam ended recently when police in Edmonton,  Alberta, picked up the fugitive during an early morning prostitution sweep. 
Chan's capture last month has cleared the way for his return to Hong Kong. Any serious crime, such as kidnapping, committed by a person who is not a Canadian citizen would kick-start deportation proceedings, according to the Canada Border Services Agency. 
But that transfer could be held up, possibly for years, if Chan made a refugee application or convinced immigration officials that there was a threat of torture or other mistreatment in his home country. 
It was unclear whether Chan would fight a deportation order. 
'It can take a long time,' a border services spokeswoman said. 'But deportation proceedings would be started [against him].' 
The latest twist in Chan's case comes a decade after he and Vancouver resident Chong Ka-wai  were sentenced to 131/2 and 14 years respectively for the violent 1998 kidnapping of a 17-year-old girl in Vancouver. 
It was believed that the unidentified teen, who moved to Canada from Hong Kong in the mid 1990s, has returned to the city since her attackers' conviction. Chong was released last month after serving a standard two-thirds of his sentence. 
Chan, meanwhile, had been scheduled for release after the British Columbia Court of Appeal ruled in December that his sentence should be reduced because of a previously undiagnosed brain injury. 
That injury - sustained in a car accident a few years before the kidnapping - could have played a key role in Chan's decision to take part in the notorious crime, the court ruled. 
'Mr Chan has been in jail for 10 years. By all accounts he has been a model prisoner,' the court wrote. 'It is clear his brain injury resulted in a diminution of his cognitive abilities. It is likely this affected to some degree his decision to participate in the kidnapping and the role he played in it.' 
In December 1998, Chong conscripted Chan to take part in what has been described as one of the longest and most brutal kidnappings in Canadian history. 
The pair abducted their 17-year-old victim from her Vancouver home after they stripped and tied up her mother, who was warned that the girl would be sold into sexual slavery if the family did not produce a  HK$3 million ransom. 
The girl was held for almost two weeks, during which she was chained to a bed, drugged and sexually assaulted. Her kidnappers fed the teen only bread and water, and refused to let her use the bathroom. When she wet the bed, the girl was slapped. 
More than 50 officers worked around the clock to find the girl, who was eventually discovered in the boot of a car.



Canada recaptures HK kidnapper who escaped from jail