The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has unanimously found that the extradition of a Taiwanese national to China, which Poland's courts had cleared earlier, would place him at significant risk of ill-treatment and torture, according to media reports.
Back in October, a French court ruled that a Taiwan national accused of telecom fraud, should not be extradited from Poland to China as he could face ill-treatment or torture and may not have access to a fair trial, the Voice of America (VOA) reported.
The judges also ruled that Hung Tao Liu's five-year detention while he appealed the extradition request was unlawful. The judgment is due to come into effect in January, the American broadcaster said.
"So, the outcome of the case is that basically, regardless of your personal status -- whether you are a political activist involved in some sort of opposition activities in China or not -- you must not be extradited to China, basically because any person being [sent] there is likely to be subject to ill-treatment," Liu's lawyer at the ECHR, Polish Professor of law Marcin Gorski told VOA.
Madrid-based rights group Safeguard Defenders said this momentous decision will most likely mean European countries will find it near impossible to extradite suspects to China again.
"It is hard to overstate how influential this decision could be, and how it, in one swoop, has done more to protect basic rights from being undermined by China, as enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), than most or all European government actions so far," Safeguard Defenders said.
His extradition had been approved by Poland's legal authorities, including its Supreme Court. The appellant held that his extradition to China would violate Articles 3 and 6 of the ECHR, concerning torture and ill-treatment and deprivation of the right to a fair trial.
"The verdict is set to guide all local European countries' court decisions on extradition to China in the future, as well as governments, which will now have to approve the initiation of an extradition process once requested by China, despite knowing that court approval would be unlikely," the Madrid based group said.
Gorski concurs that the outcome is of significance, and points to the unanimous decision by the court as of importance, reducing the likelihood that Poland or others would appeal the verdict.
( With inputs from ANI )
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