Graft suspect from China extradited from Bulgaria

BEIJING: China has extradited from Bulgaria a former official accused of taking bribes, the first such return from a European Union country, the country’s top graft buster said.

A former official in eastern China’s Zhejiang province, Yao Jinqi, 62, was on Friday returned to China where he could face the death penalty.

“The law enforcement agencies of China and Bulgaria worked closely together and Yao Jinqi, a suspect who fled to Bulgaria, was extradited,” the National Supervision Commission said in a statement.

“It is also the first time we have successfully extradited a bureaucrat suspected of work-related crimes from an EU member state.”

During a court hearing in Sofia on Monday, Yao had asked to be extradited, his lawyer Yanko Alexiev told Bulgarian public broadcaster BNT.

Since Yao could face the death penalty, the court could have rejected China’s extradition request, Alexiev said.

“However, given the firm position expressed by my client of an immediate extradition to China, I do not see how the Bulgarian court could have refused,” he added.

China’s Xinhua news agency said Yao fled the country in 2005 when he was accused of graft, living in central and south America and the Philippines before settling in Bulgaria where he was last month arrested after being put on an Interpol Red Notice.