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The Swedish Supreme Court rejected on Tuesday, July 9, a request for extradition to China of a Chinese national, accused of misappropriation of public funds, on the grounds that he risked torture and capital punishment. Qiao Jianjun is accused by the Chinese authorities of embezzling 26 million euros between 2008 and 2011.
The former grain storage center official in Henan Province will not be extradited to China. Despite the Chinese justice guarantees that Qiao Jianjun will not be sentenced to death, a sentence for the financial crime he is accused of, the Swedish magistrates have found that there are " strong reasons to doubt the reliability of this insurance ".
The highest court in the Scandinavian country considers that even if there are serious charges against the Chinese national, his extradition would not take place because of the risk of persecution due in particular to his political activities. Qiao Jianjun was indeed in the viewfinder of Beijing after joining the Democratic Party in 2010, banned in the country.
This decision is likely to aggravate relations already tense between Stockholm and Beijing, especially after the disappearance in 2015 of Gui Minhai , a Swedish bookseller of Chinese origin, who had been kidnapped in China. Or more recently the diplomatic quarrels between the two countries after the expulsion last September of Chinese tourists from a hotel in Stockholm.