Photo: VCG

China's Ministry of Public Security (MPS) has extradited from Russia a homicide suspect who had been on the run for 27 years, the ministry revealed in a statement sent to the Global Times on Friday, noting that it demonstrates high-level mutual trust between the law enforcement authorities of the two countries.

The suspect, surnamed Xu, killed a police officer who was on duty on the evening of January 23, 1996, in Yanji, Northeast China's Jilin Province, and then fled to Russia. In October 1999, he was listed as a B-level escaped suspect by the MPS, according to the statement.

In January 2002, Xu obtained a Russian passport with fake identification information and became a Russian citizen via illegal channels, hiding the fact that he had killed a person in China.

For years, the MPS had been asking the Russian side to chase Xu and investigate the case via bilateral law enforcement cooperation, the ministry said in the statement.

According to the statement, Xu was finally captured by Russian police in Volgograd in December 2021. Chinese police later confirmed his identity and discovered that he had obtained Russian identity through illegal means. As per the domestic laws of both countries and relevant treaties between the two sides, Russia then extradited Xu to China.

In 1995, China and Russia signed an extradition treaty, which took effect in 1997.

Law enforcement and security cooperation between China and Russia is currently developing in a sound, stable and pragmatic manner, which plays an important role in safeguarding the two countries' national security. It also helps with cracking down on transnational crimes and protecting the legal rights of people on both sides, the ministry said in the statement.

In the past decade, law enforcement authorities from both countries have exchanged a number of escaped criminals. This fully demonstrates the high-level mutual trust and the practical results of the cooperation between the law enforcement authorities of both sides, it noted.

Global Times