Light at end of a ‘long dark tunnel’, for Scot fighting epic extradition battle to Taiwan

ASCOTS prisoner facing extradition to Taiwan for fleeing the island after he was convicted of a hit-and-run killing hopes to be free this month after three years in an Edinburgh prison. Zain Dean, 45, won a landmark appeal on human rights grounds on September 23.

However, Taiwan has unexpectedly launched another bid to have him returned – this time on the grounds that he absconded in 2012.

The businessman, from Edinburgh, was sentenced to four years in prison for fatally injuring newspaper vendor Huang Jun-de, 31, while drunk driving.

But Dean – who has always insisted he is innocent and claims he paid a nightclub employee to drive him home to the Taipei apartment he shared with his Taiwanese girlfriend – was bailed and then got on a plane home to Scotland using a friend’s passport.

Speaking exclusively to the Sunday Herald for the first time about last week’s extradition appeal victory from HMP Edinburgh, Dean said he is disappointed he’s still behind bars but hopes “reason will prevail” and he will be free by the end of October.

Dean said: “I was expecting to be out of prison in June. I passed the statutory liberation date of two-thirds of a sentence under Scottish law in October 2015 and the April 2016 date for parole under Taiwan law.

“I was disappointed not to be let out after passing those milestones but I am really at the mercy of the courts now.

“I am still here [in prison] and now being charged with a second extradition for breaking bail and leaving the country.

“The new extradition proceedings started a couple of weeks ago, just before I won the previous extradition case.”

The night the newspaper vendor was killed in 2010, Dean was entertaining a client at a karaoke club in Taipei.

CCTV footage shows him getting into the passenger side of his black Mercedes before he was driven home. He was arrested the following day and police told local media they had CCTV footage which proved he was driving.

BUT during the trial the prosecution claimed every camera in the area was out of order and he was convicted on the basis of statements made by club employees. Dean insists the police officers who built the case against him are corrupt and he wasn’t given a fair trial after he was paraded as the killer on Taiwanese television before the trial.

The Taipei City Police Department was probed in April 2010 after allegations were made by a politician that nightclub owners handed over cash payments as part of a protection racket.

A senior officer was sacked a month later and sanctions were taken against several subordinates.

After fleeing to Scotland, fearing his life would be in danger in a Taiwanese prison when the victim’s family offered a cash reward for his killing, Dean set up home in Edinburgh and was later joined by his Taiwanese girlfriend – who has stood by him throughout.

Taiwan launched the island’s first extradition attempt in October 2013 and Dean has been locked up ever since.

He finally saw some “light at the end of a long, dark tunnel” on September 23 when his legal team successfully argued that sending the businessman back to Taiwan contravened the European Convention on Human Rights because prison conditions were poor and Dean would be under threat of attack.

The Taiwanese had hoped to avoid this outcome by sending a letter to the Lord Advocate offering reassurances Dean would be given special treatment.

The letter pledged to provide a “ventilated” cell of 13.76 square metres equipped with a desk, chair, shelves, bed and a bathroom with a toilet, sink, shower and shower curtain.

In the letter, Chen Wen-chi, a “Director General” at the Ministry of Justice, also offered to provide Dean with “Western food”.

However, the Sunday Herald later revealed deputy justice minister Chen Ming-Tang had told Taiwanese media that “this type of cell and treatment may not be available to him (Dean)”.

Speaking to this newspaper in June, Aurora Wan-Mei Tsai, assistant director at the Taipei Representative Office in Edinburgh, played down the comment.

She said: “The article being quoted may not reflect the full context of Deputy Minister Chen’s original comment. It is garbled due to limited space of news coverage and is not precise to its true meaning.”

Despite this, the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh ruled in Dean’s favour on September 23.

In her judgement, Lady Paton wrote: “There remains a real risk of treatment of the appellant which is incompatible with his human rights.”

Dean will be back in court this week to face the further extradition request over absconding from Taiwan.

He said: “I can’t see now how they can extradite me, given the ruling that returning me to Taiwan would be in breach of my human rights.”

A spokesman for the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service confirmed the case is due to be called at Edinburgh Sheriff Court for a preliminary hearing on October 6, with a full hearing to follow at the end of the month.

The Sunday Herald asked Aurora Wan-Mei Tsai to comment on developments in the case but she did not respond.