New Zealand Minister Declines to Overturn Extradition of Resident to China

Minister Kris Faafoi speaks to media during question time at Parliament in Wellington, New Zealand, on Aug. 6, 2020. (Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images)

New Zealand’s retiring Minister of Justice Kris Faafoi has rejected a bid to overturn the extradition of a permanent resident to China for alleged murder charges.

Faafoi said the New Zealand Supreme Court’s decision to surrender Kyung Yup Kim to China “remains appropriate” despite his health conditions.

Kim, a South Korean citizen, is suspected of murdering a young woman in Shanghai in 2009, a charge he strongly denies.

He has been diagnosed with several physical health conditions including liver disease, kidney disease, and a brain tumour which he currently does not receive treatment for.

Kim’s lawyer, Tony Ellis, also indicated that Kim’s mental health was deteriorating and he was at “significant risk” of suicide and required psychiatric care.

But Faafoi said Kim was “managing” his mental health at home by taking anti-depressant medication and sleeping pills.

“I am of the view that the health conditions are not ‘extraordinary’ or ‘compelling.’ Your health circumstances do not meet the high threshold required under s30 (3) (d) of the [Extradition] Act, and should not preclude your extradition,” Faafoi said in a letter to Kim dated June 10, obtained by The Epoch Times.

“I consider that your health can be adequately managed in China, where you will have access to healthcare when detained.”

The former minister of justice also accepted “assurances” from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) that Kim would not be subjected to torture and he would have access to New Zealand representatives at “all reasonable times.”

However, members of the global Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC), comprised of politicians from across Australia, New Zealand, and Europe had warned Faafoi that Beijing’s promises were not to be relied upon.

“There is no reliable way to monitor whether or not a person extradited has or has not been subject to torture after diplomatic assurances have been given, and such assurances carry no weight in law.

“It is noteworthy that diplomatic assurances have repeatedly failed to protect people from torture.

“The widespread and well-documented practice of torture in custody throughout the [People’s Republic of China] system, together with the absence of any reliable way of monitoring treatment ought to preclude extradition to China,” members said in a letter to Faafoi on April 22.

Police officers and security block the way as they perform crowd control after an official flag raising ceremony to mark National Day next to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City in Beijing, China, on Oct. 1, 2021. (Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)

Further, Kim’s lawyer, Tony Ellis, also provided a report from China expert Clive Ansley who stated in 2021 that access to proper physical and mental health care would not occur because it was “simply not possible to obtain proper assurances from China.”

However, Faafoi indicated that although he believed Ansley’s report, and other supplementary material supplied by Kim’s lawyer—including a 2021 U.S. State Department Report on China—he did not consider the material “particularly relevant to your situation and I have placed little weight on it.”

Ellis further called the minister’s decision “unjust” and could not comprehend how he came to his decision without specialist medical advice.

“It looks like he is determined, come what may, to extradite Kim. I don’t know what political pressure he is under, but it does not seem a rational decision,” he told Stuff News.

Ellis took the case to the United Nations Human Rights Committee on June 4, and has said international observers can confirm Beijing still uses torture.

Meanwhile, Faafoi has since announced his resignation from politics, saying he wants to spend more time with family. His resignation came three days after his decision.