Hong Kong and Taiwan clash over surrender of murder suspect whose case sparked extradition bill crisis and mass protests

Taiwan’s Justice Minister Tsai Ching-hsiang says Hong Kong authorities must follow up the case by pressing charges against the suspect before he is released

But Hong Kong’s Security Bureau insists Taipei has ‘absolute jurisdiction’ over the case and surrender is not any obstacle in terms of legal procedures

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Chan Tong-kai wants to turn himself in to the Taiwanese authorities, but Taipei says Hong Kong should not allow the suspect to walk free. Photo: Winson Wong

Gary Cheungin Hong Kong,Lawrence Chungin TaipeiandChris Lauin Hong Kong

Published: 12:15am, 22 Oct 2019Updated: 5:11pm, 23 Oct 2019

Both the Hong Kong and Taiwan governments have toughened their stances, each demanding the other side’s cooperation, in an escalating row over the fate of the fugitive murder suspect whose case sparked the city’s extradition bill crisis more than four months ago.

Taipei on Monday said that Chan Tong-kai’s offer to surrender himself to Taiwan to face charges over the murder of his pregnant girlfriend was not enough, and that formal talks were required within a mutual legal assistance framework. The Hong Kong government countered that it was a simple matter of the 20-year-old student turning himself in to a jurisdiction where he was still a wanted man.

Chan, who fled home to Hong Kong after the murder early last year, is due to be released on Wednesday following 19 months behind bars on money-laundering charges stemming from the theft of the victim’s property and misuse of her finances.

Local authorities could not find enough evidence to prosecute him for the more serious crime committed in Taiwan, and his case was cited by Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor as a key justification for her extradition bill to plug a legal loophole preventing Hong Kong from transferring criminal suspects to jurisdictions with which it lacked a fugitive transfer agreement.

Those jurisdictions also included mainland China, and it was fears about the fate of Hongkongers transferred to the mainland that sparked the public backlash that eventually forced Lam to withdraw the bill in early September. But the protests have yet to die down and the city has been plagued by months of chaos and violence.

“Both Taiwan and Hong Kong have jurisdiction over the case, but because the suspect and victim are citizens of Hong Kong and the suspect is still under detention, the Hong Kong authorities must follow up the case by pressing charges against the suspect before he is released,” Taiwan Justice Minister Tsai Ching-hsiang said on Monday.