Fugitive businessman Lai deported to China (AFP)

BEIJING (AFP) – Fugitive Chinese businessman Lai Changxing arrived back in Beijing on Saturday after being deported from Canada, ending a 12-year legal and diplomatic tug-of-war that tested the countries' relations.

Lai landed in the Chinese capital aboard a civilian flight in the custody of Canadian police and was handed over to authorities who arrested him, state television said, quoting a Ministry of Public Security statement.

China's Xinhua news agency had reported earlier that Lai had been flown from the Canadian west coast city of Vancouver.

Canadian authorities moved swiftly to return Lai after a federal court on Thursday ruled he should be deported -- a move blocked for years by Canada's courts and refugee board out of fear he could be executed or tortured.

Canada, which does not have capital punishment, bans the return of prisoners to countries where they might be put to death.

But China has issued an unusual promise not to execute Lai -- believed to be 52 -- if he is tried and found guilty.

Lai's repatriation marks a victory for Beijing, which had tried for more than a decade to secure his return -- and the removal of a diplomatic headache for Ottawa.

Lai is accused of running a smuggling ring in southeastern China's Fujian province that moved contraband variously estimated to be worth between $6 billion and $10 billion.

China's state-run media said it could prove to be the largest case of economic crime in the country since the Communists took over in 1949.

Lai fled to Canada with his family in 1999 after the case emerged, rocking Fujian's political establishment and leading to the dismissal or arrest of a number of officials there implicated in alleged wrongdoing.

Lai sought asylum in Canada, where he arrived on a tourist visa with his then wife, two sons and a daughter, saying the Chinese accusations against him were politically motivated.

The businessman's lawyers have argued that several of his associates have died or vanished in China's justice system.

But he has been called a "common criminal" by politicians and judges in Canada.

The Chinese foreign ministry said in a statement on Friday that it "welcomed" the court move to authorise his deportation, calling Lai the "primary criminal suspect" in the case.

The statement also said Beijing "has held a very clear position on repatriating Lai to be tried according to the law".

Lai will now likely face a trial in China and a lengthy prison sentence if convicted. Xinhua quoted Chinese legal experts saying he would not face execution.

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Canadian court rules to deport Chinese fugitive (AFP)

VANCOUVER (AFP) – A Canadian court cleared the way for China's most-wanted fugitive Lai Changxing to be sent home to face expected criminal charges.

"The life of the applicant is in the Chinese Government's hands," the court ruled, citing a Chinese proverb.

China earlier promised not to sentence Lai to death if he is tried and found guilty. Canada, which does not practice capital punishment, prohibits the return of prisoners to countries where they might be put to death.

There was no immediate word from Lai's lawyers about whether the court ruling will be appealed.

Lai remained behind bars Thursday night, after a separate court ruling overturned an order by the Immigration and Refugee Board to release him.

Canadian officials told the court Lai could be sent home as early as the weekend.

If an appeal is not launched, or fails, the ruling will end Lai's 12-year battle to remain in Canada. The case has soured diplomatic relations between the two countries, and pitted Western ideas about human rights against China's treatment of prisoners.

Canada's government has repeatedly tried to send Lai to China, but the independent courts and Immigration and Refugee board had blocked his deportation until now on human rights grounds.

Lai fled here with his family in 1999 after being accused in China of running a $6 billion (US) smuggling ring in Fujian province. His lawyers say at least seven of his associates have died or vanished in China's justice system.

Earlier this month, a key risk assessment by immigration officials cleared the way for his return, after they ruled Lai would not risk death or torture if sent home to China. Thursday's ruling rejected the prisoner's appeal of that risk assessment.

His lawyer, well-known human rights advocate David Matas, has warned repeatedly that Lai would risk death or torture in China, despite the country's unusual diplomatic assurances to Canada.

Matas noted in a court filing that China has promised "access to a lawyer, permission of a Canadian official to be present at the hearing of the applicant, Canadian official access to recordings of interrogations and hearings, and permission for Canadian officials to visit the applicant in prison, mitigating risk of abuse."

But, he added, "these four assurances amount to nothing."

The court apparently disagreed.

The ruling, emailed Thursday night to reporters, cited China's much-criticized record on its treatment of other prisoners and noted they "are detained together indiscriminately."

However, "it is assumed that the assurances of the Chinese government... will be kept," the court added.

The ruling said China's "honor and face" would be at stake during the lifetime monitoring of Lai.

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Fugitive baboon captured at New Jersey farm (Reuters)

PHILADELPHIA – The fugitive baboon of central New Jersey was captured on Saturday after she was spotted sitting on a fence post on a farm in Howell Township.

A crew from nearby Six Flags Great Adventure park, located in adjacent Jackson Township, arrived at the farm on Fairfield Road, and used a tranquilizer dart from a gun to put her to sleep, and return her to the 350-acre wild safari exhibit there.

The baboon is about 2 years old, according to Kristin Siebeneicher, a spokeswoman for the park.

"We are fairly confident that it is our baboon," Siebeneicher said.

She estimated that the animal had traveled about 10 miles through Jackson, Freehold and Howell before being captured. A resident of the farm spotted the baboon, and called police, she said. A six-person crew from the animal park dashed to the scene.

After the baboon was shot with the dart, "They picked her up and carried her." She estimated that the baboon weighs 30 to 35 pounds, and is about two feet tall.

The park has now added two extra strips of electric wire to the baboon enclosure, which is also surrounded by chain link fence. The park has also installed surveillance video cameras in the baboon area, and is working on a way to do a nightly count of its estimated 150 baboons, as it does with other animals.

She said it's not clear how the baboon escaped, and said that it was the first animal to get out of the park since it was built in 1974, except for an incident about a decade ago when someone deliberately snipped a hole in the fence and several antelope fled.

The baboon was still sleeping Saturday evening, and will be kept in isolation for about two weeks to make sure she is healthy, Siebeneicher said.

(Editing by Greg McCune)

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FBI down to 1 fugitive in $7 million Conn. heist (AP)

HARTFORD, Conn. – One by one, and as recently as this week, the suspects in a 1983 heist that netted $7 million for a militant group have been tracked down. All 17 of them — except for the part-time armored car guard accused of playing the central role in what was then the biggest cash robbery in U.S. history.

And if Victor Manuel Gerena is in Cuba, as the FBI believes, there's little hope that authorities will catch him anytime soon.

He's charged with ambushing fellow guard James McKeon, hog-tying him and jamming a needle into his neck before loading the money into a rented Buick and driving off from the West Hartford armored car depot. Gerena could have left with twice as much money, McKeon said, but the rest apparently wouldn't fit in the car.

With a coat smothering his head, McKeon listened as Gerena stuffed the cash into duffel bags. "I thought he was going to kill me," McKeon said. "All I said was 'Vic,' and he said 'Jim, I've got nothing against you. I'm just tired of working for other people.'"

Gerena has been on the FBI's 10 most wanted list since 1984, longer than any other fugitive. With the arrest of an alleged accomplice Tuesday in a Puerto Rican mountain town, Gerena is the only person still at large in the crime he was allegedly recruited for by Los Macheteros, a militant wing of the broader movement for Puerto Rican independence.

U.S. authorities say Gerena is among dozens of American fugitives who have received sanctuary from the communist government. Cuba has long advocated for Puerto Rico's independence from the United States, and some people, including a former Cuban intelligence agent, have claimed the government of Fidel Castro helped finance the Wells Fargo heist.

As Havana and Washington take halting steps toward improved relations, U.S. authorities hope there will be an opportunity to arrest Gerena.

"That's not going to happen now, but there is always a chance to capture fugitives," said Luis Fraticelli, the special agent in charge of FBI operations in Puerto Rico.

Los Macheteros, whose name is translated as "Machete Wielders" or "Cane Cutters," are suspected of using the stolen money to finance bombings and attacks in their push for independence for the U.S. territory. Most of their violent activities took place in the 1970s and 1980s, including a 1979 attack on a bus carrying U.S. sailors that killed two and wounded 10.

A total of 17 people were indicted in Hartford in connection with the robbery, but none played a bigger role than the Macheteros' inside man, Gerena — a New York-born college dropout whose mother, Gloria, was an ardent supporter of independence for Puerto Rico.

"Victor pulled the whole thing off by himself," McKeon said. "He was a really good worker and everything, but you never know about a guy."

It was the night of Sept. 12, 1983, and McKeon was doing paperwork to close out his shift inside the Wells Fargo depot when Gerena, then 25, grabbed McKeon's gun and tied him up along with another guard. He injected both with an incapacitating substance; McKeon later learned from the hospital that it was a mixture of aspirin and water.

There have been bigger cash robberies since in the U.S.: In 1997, three netted more than $17 million each, including one in Los Angeles in which $18.9 million was stolen.

McKeon, now 52, said police interrogated him for two days following the robbery. The depot later closed, and McKeon blames Gerena for his loss of a good-paying manager's job.

"When Victor robbed me, I went back to driving a truck and cooking," said McKeon, who lives in Suffield, Conn., and works as a cook at a restaurant.

West Hartford Police Chief James Strillacci, who was a young sergeant in the wealthy Hartford suburb at the time of the robbery, said he has followed the case closely even though it is in the hands of federal authorities. Since Gerena has not surfaced with any public remarks, he said it's impossible to know whether Gerena was motivated more by ideology or profit.

A former Cuban intelligence agent who defected to Europe in the 1990s, Jorge Masetti, wrote in a book and testified to U.S. authorities that the Cuban government provided $50,000 in "seed money" for the robbery. He said the loot was smuggled across the border to Mexico in a recreational vehicle, and that he was involved in shipping some of the $7 million haul from the Cuban Embassy in Mexico City to Havana. Cuban officials have dismissed his account.

Since last year, Gerena has been on the FBI's most wanted list longer than anyone else in its history. Donald Eugene Webb, who allegedly killed the police chief in Saxonburg, Pa., in 1980, was taken off the list in 2007 after more than 25 years and 10 months because many believed he was already dead.

Philip Peters, a Cuba analyst at the Arlington, Va.-based Lexington Institute think tank, said the U.S. State Department has protested the presence of some of its most wanted fugitives in Cuba, but it is politically awkward because Cuba would like to prosecute some people living in the U.S.

"There's no evidence of any serious negotiations going on that address the fugitives," he said.

The government in Havana did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Gerena.

The last of the other fugitives in the Wells Fargo heist have been tracked down recently in Puerto Rico. On Tuesday, the FBI arrested Norberto Gonzalez Claudio, 65, who is suspected of helping to smuggle the cash out of the U.S. mainland. On Friday he was ordered to be extradited to Connecticut to face charges that include bank robbery, transportation of stolen money and conspiracy.

Three loaded weapons — a submachine gun and two handguns — and body armor were found next to Gonzalez's bed during a search of his apartment, federal prosecutor Warren Vazquez said at the hearing in San Juan. A defense attorney said there is no evidence Gonzalez was ever involved in violence.

The arrest followed the 2008 capture of Gonzalez's older brother, Avelino, who was sentenced last year to seven years in prison for his role in the heist. In 2005, an FBI shootout at a farmhouse in western Puerto Rico killed Filiberto Ojeda Rios, a Machetero leader who jumped bond in 1990 while awaiting trial.

Fraticelli said the breaks over the last six years have resulted from the persistence of agents and officers assigned to a joint anti-terrorism task force. "We made sure we connected the dots," he said.

The FBI has offered a $1 million reward for information leading to Gerena's capture. As long as he remains in Cuba, however, observers say prosecutors are unlikely to completely resolve the case anytime soon.

"The only way they could get Gerena is if all the clutter in our relationship with Cuba gets lifted," said James Bergenn, a Connecticut attorney who represented Avelino Gonzalez Claudio.

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Associated Press writer Ben Fox contributed to this report from San Juan, Puerto Rico.

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Fugitive Russian lawmaker living in Beverly Hills (AP)

WASHINGTON – A sensational dispute between Moscow billionaires with a storyline that rivals Hollywood has spilled across international borders: Surveillance photographs showed a fugitive Russian lawmaker living in Beverly Hills, Calif. Someone tried to hack into computers at his London law firm. And he filed a federal lawsuit in New York accusing his business rivals of trying to force him to return home.

Ashot Egiazaryan (Ah-shawt Yeh-gee-ah-zar-ee-AHN), who said he could be killed if he is forced to return to Russia, is fighting to remain in the United States despite a request by Interpol to have him arrested and deported. He came to the U.S. in early September and quickly filed a lawsuit in Cyprus and another in an arbitration court of appeal in London claiming that a politically connected group of Russian tycoons extorted him into surrendering his major stake in the historic Moskva Hotel. The multibillion dollar property sits a few steps from Red Square.

Since then, and after a published interview with The Associated Press in February, Egiazaryan said in court papers he has been subjected to continuing surveillance and a public relations smear campaign. Scotland Yard is currently investigating a report that someone tried to plant sophisticated spyware on a computer that belongs to one of his lawyers, according to a person briefed on the investigation.

Egiazaryan said the lucrative Moskva project was wrested from him in 2009 by prominent Russians including mining magnate Suleiman Kerimov, a billionaire and a member of the Russian senate, and Arkady Rotenberg, a wealthy businessman and the longtime judo partner of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. At Egiazaryan's urging, the Cyprus court temporarily froze about $8 billion in stock owned by two of Kerimov's Cyprus-based companies, OAO Polyus Gold and fertilizer maker OAO Uralkali, one of the world's leading producers of potash. The freeze came at an awkward time for Kerimov, who was in the midst of efforts to build one of the world's largest mining empires.

The court rescinded the asset freeze earlier this year, saying Egiazaryan had waited too long after surrendering his interest in the hotel before filing his lawsuit.

Kerimov's lawyers and representatives have said the hotel deal was a routine, legitimate business transaction and disputed Egiazaryan's allegations.

After Egiazaryan filed his lawsuit in Cyprus, Russian law enforcement officials charged him with defrauding an investor in a posh Moscow shopping mall of $51 million, and Russia's lower house of parliament voted to strip him of his parliamentary immunity. At Russia's request, Interpol on May 6 issued a "red notice" seeking help in arresting him and returning him to Russia.

A spokesman for the Russian Embassy in Washington said that Moscow has turned over documents to the U.S. seeking Egiazaryan's extradition. But the U.S. and Russia have no extradition treaty, and U.S. officials must weigh the request against the lawmaker's claims that he risks losing his life and liberty if he returns to Russia.

The dispute is made for Hollywood, with an international hacker investigation and secret surveillance photos of Egiazaryan that he claims amount to harassment. Several photographs entered as evidence in a related federal court case to prove the 45-year-old lawmaker was living in the U.S. included pictures of him in his brother's back yard and a photo of him with a woman who isn't his wife.

In a hearing in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles in November, one of Egiazaryan's attorneys, Maurice Suh, said Egiazaryan's wife had received anonymous warnings that her husband's relationships with other women would be disclosed if he fought an effort to depose him in a Cyprus corporate lawsuit.

"The fact that we have a picture of Ashot Egiazaryan with a woman not his wife has caused significant harm to their marriage," Maurice Suh told the judge.

A spokeswoman for Akin Gump, the law firm that sought Egiazaryan's deposition, said the photographs were intended to prove that Egiazaryan was living in the United States and under jurisdiction of U.S. law.

Since then, the AP has learned, Scotland Yard is investigating a computer break-in at the offices of Egiazaryan's London barristers. An official briefed on the investigation confirmed the probe but would not provide details. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about an ongoing investigation.

Egiazaryan has fought back. He has filed an unusual federal lawsuit accusing a New York human rights activist of falsely portraying him as anti-American and anti-Semitic. The activist, Peter Zalmayev, declined to speak with The Associated Press. But his attorney, Mark Cymrot, said the lawsuit "does not appear to be a credible libel case" and seemed to be an attempt to intimidate his client. Cymrot said of Egiazaryan: "He's got other battles and somehow this fits within his strategy to shut Peter up."

In a magazine article, Zalmayev wrote that the lawmaker is fleeing prosecution rather than persecution. He also questioned Egiazaryan's decade-long association with an ultranationalist Russian political party whose flamboyant leader is well-known for his anti-American and anti-Semitic statements.

Zalmayev, who studied at Columbia University's School of International Affairs and Public Policy, is described on his organization's website as an expert on human rights in the former Soviet Union. He has written for the Huffington Post, among other publications, and appeared in interviews on CNN, BBC and other networks.

After Zalmayev contacted them, several other rights activists in the U.S. and Russia also wrote letters opposing granting Egiazaryan asylum. They later withdrew their letters after personal appeals from Egiazaryan's friends in Moscow, saying they didn't have all the information in the case.

Representatives of three U.S. rights groups have also signed letters opposing asylum for Egiazaryan to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and the State Department's Office to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism.

Egiazaryan's immigration status is not clear. He told the AP months ago that he was considering applying for asylum in the U.S., but his lawyers have declined to say whether he has ever done so. The U.S. government is prohibited by law from disclosing whether it has received an asylum request.

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Associated Press writer Raphael Satter in London contributed to this report.

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