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Hong Kong murder suspect Chan Tong-kai’s transfer to Taiwan may be delayed until after island’s presidential election
- Wanted man – whose case sparked Hong Kong’s protest crisis – has agreed to turn himself in, but the two jurisdictions are clashing over how to proceed
- Anglican priest helping Chan says they will consider postponing his surrender for three months
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An Anglican priest helping a Hong Kong murder suspect whose case triggered the city’s extradition bill crisis said on Thursday they would consider postponing his voluntary surrender to Taiwan for three months to allow for the self-ruled island’s presidential election.
Reverend Canon Peter Koon Ho-ming of the Anglican Church spoke of the possibility even as it emerged that Taiwan’s government was informed in late September about Chan Tong-kai’s desire to turn himself in and had prepared for it, yet there was little progress in arranging his transfer after his release from prison this week against a politically loaded backdrop.
Hong Kong and Taipei are at loggerheads over how the 20-year-old student, wanted in Taiwan for the murder of his pregnant girlfriend, should face justice after serving 19 months behind bars on money laundering charges. Chan is technically a free man, as Hong Kong is unable to prosecute him for a murder that was committed in Taiwan.
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Another sticking point is the transfer of evidence that Hong Kong is holding, including his murder confession to local police, given the lack of a mutual legal assistance deal between the two sides.
Chan’s case was cited by Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor as a key justification for her now-withdrawn extradition bill, since he could not be sent back to the island in the absence of a fugitive transfer deal. The bill would have allowed extradition of criminal suspects from Hong Kong to several jurisdictions it lacks transfer agreements with – including mainland China, triggering mass protests that have not died down since they began in June.
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Taiwan’s presidential election is a key factor in the current dispute, the government under incumbent Tsai Ing-wen having reversed its earlier refusal to accept Chan.
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