据英文媒体省报（The Province）报道，移民部已经在温哥华当地时间今天（7月22日）下午2：30（东部时间5：30）将赖昌星送上从温哥华直飞北京的飞机。新华网发布的快讯证实了这一消息。
新华网快讯，逃亡加拿大12年之久的赖昌星于温哥华时间22日下午在加拿大警察的押送下搭乘飞往中国的民航班机离开温哥华国际机场。
众多中国记者高喊“赖哥”，赖昌星回头惊鸿一瞥，是为其加拿大12年的的最后背影。
7月11日，边境服务局发言人曾表示，最早7月25日即可遣返。聆讯结束后，赖昌星确认将被遣返后，加拿大边境服务局和移民部均称，最早23日即可。而联邦法官肖尔甚至认为，如果一切就绪，最快在当地时间22日就可以实施遣返。
很显然，加拿大方面也担心“夜长梦多”:2006年的遣返，赖昌星曾以头撞墙，避过最危险的一次遣返尝试，为后来的翻盘赢得喘息之机，遣返日期越早，赖昌星及其律师就越难想出“妙计”，其翻盘的概率也就越小。
果不其然，据英文媒体省报（The Province）报道，移民部已经在温哥华当地时间今天（7月22日）下午2：30（东部时间5：30）将赖昌星送上从温哥华直飞北京的飞机。省报称其消息来源于警方人士，但移民局官员基于安全的原因拒绝确认这项消息。
赖昌星是在一名人员的押解下在温哥华国际机场登上前往中国的航班的，目前正在返回途中。到此赖昌星在加拿大的逃亡生涯划上了句号。
赖昌星遣返消息加政府钳口
侨报网/赖昌星遣返媒体大战，中英记者们采取分工策略，分别在机场、拘留所等地守候，并不断询问加拿大政府有关部门遣返消息，但所有的询问都被婉拒，赖昌星何时、如何遣返仍成谜。
此前大批记者在温哥华国际机场守候，希望可以采访到赖昌星上飞机的新闻。但终未等到赖昌星被遣返。当天从温哥华飞往中国有3个航班，其中第一个东航航班已经起飞，剩下的加航和国航已经满座，但不排除加拿大政府动用特别渠道获得座位。
分析人士称，鉴于赖昌星律师马塔斯将于下午5点赶回温哥华，为赖昌星提供人道帮助。加拿大政府为了防止节外生枝，会尽早遣返赖昌星。
英文报道：
Chinese fugitive reportedly en route to China
Friday, July 22, 2011
By Fabian Dawson, The Province
After over a decade of trying to stay in Canada, China’s most wanted man was reportedly put on plane bound for Beijing Friday afternoon.
Police sources confirmed that Lai Changxing, along with an escort, was flying out of Vancouver International Airport around 2.30 pm direct to Beijing.
His reported removal from Canada comes after a last-ditch bid to stay in Canada failed Thursday night.
A federal judge issued a decision late Thursday denying the Chinese fugitive’s request to stay a deportation order against him.
CBSA officials would not confirm his removal.
“Mr. Lai is a common criminal fugitive from the Chinese justice system who has had full access to Canada’s immigration processes over the last eleven years and has been found not to be at risk if removed to China,” Judge Michel Shore wrote.
Bernee Bolton, a spokeswoman for the Canada Border Services Agency, said in an email Thursday that she could not say when Lai would be deported for security reasons. But the law requires that “removal orders must be enforced as soon as possible.”
Earlier Thursday, Lai’s lawyer had argued that if Lai was sent back to China, he faced a possibility of being tortured — or worse — and may not get a fair trial despite assurances from the Chinese government.
But federal lawyers said those concerns were speculative and that the Canadian government had “carefully and thoroughly” reviewed the evidence and found that he did not face such risks.
Lai, who has been described as one of China’s most-wanted fugitives, is accused of running a $10-billion smuggling operation in China. He has been fighting deportation from Canada for more than a decade.
David Matas, one of Lai’s lawyers, told the court that the Chinese government is going after Lai as part of a political campaign to fend off allegations of corruption within the government. “He’s become the poster boy for the fight against corruption,” Matas said.
Matas said assurances that Canadian officials would be able to visit Lai in detention would not mitigate against possible abuse, noting that Lai’s brother and accountant had died in prison.
The same thing “could easily happen to Mr. Lai,” he said.
In a statement Friday, the Chinese government said it welcomed the ruling so that Lai can “be tried according to the law.”
“Lai Changxing is the primary criminal suspect wanted by China’s judicial authorities in the huge Xiamen smuggling case and he has been a fugitive in Canada for many years since the case emerged,” a statement issued by the Chinese foreign ministry said.
Matas suggested the Chinese government does not distinguish between “common criminals” and ideological or political prisoners. They are all considered “hostile to socialism” and subject to mistreatment, he said.
He also raised concerns about whether Lai would receive a fair trial, including having access to counsel. Hearings, particularly “politically sensitive” ones, are often closed and there were no assurances that Canadian officials would be able to attend such hearings, he said.
Federal lawyer Jan Brongers said the government’s review of the evidence found that those who have been tortured in the past were those who belonged to “vulnerable groups,” such as Falun Gong practitioners, political dissidents and Tibetans. Lai does not belong to any of these groups, Brongers said.
Helen Park, another federal lawyer, added that while there is evidence that torture is used during investigations as a way to coerce confessions from people, a review of the Lai case found that the evidence is so strong that coercion is not necessary.
The federal lawyers also said that China’s assurance that it would not pursue the death penalty in this case was reliable because to do otherwise would impact China’s international reputation and make it difficult for China to persuade other countries to repatriate fugitives back to that country.
The evidence shows that criminal procedures in China, in general, are “not fundamentally unjust” and that proceedings are accessible, Brongers said.
A pre-removal risk assessment completed by Citizenship and Immigration Canada earlier this month concluded that Lai does not face the risk of torture.
That prompted Lai’s re-arrest and set into motion plans to have him deported. But Lai won a temporary stay of deportation, paving the way for Thursday’s court hearing.
Lai has been fighting deportation since his initial arrest in Niagara Falls in 2000. He is accused of failing to pay duties on his real estate, cigarettes and cooking oil empire and bribing senior officials.
He remains in detention pending the court’s decision.
The Immigration and Refugee Board had ordered Lai’s release from custody. But the Canada Border Services Agency, believing that he was a flight risk, went to court and won a stay of his release.
— With files from Andy Ivens and Agence France-Presse
http://www.theprovince.com/mobile/news/top-stories/Chinese+fugitive+reportedly+route+China/5146655/story.html
