A Chinese man who fled a 25-year jail term imposed in Italy in 1999 for the murder of his ‘female companion’ has been run to ground in Vila Real living perfectly legally with Portuguese residency.
Now 56 years old, the unanswered question is ‘how did he swing it?’
Diário de Notícias says it has quizzed borders control agency SEF about how anyone with this kind of criminal conviction could get a residency, but has not received an answer.
The paper admits authorities may not have been helped by the fact that the man used “several names”.
PJ police managed to pin his identity down by “cross-referencing data with the residency authorisation emitted by SEF”, says DN.
It’s not explained how long the Chinese man had been living in Vila Real. He is understood to own a shop in Boticas, and have a wife and a child.
Not explaining the details behind his conviction, reports say Italian authorities applied for an International Arrest Warrant in 2012, and bit by bit, the hunt narrowed in on its target.
The so-far-unnamed fugitive has been presented before a magistrate in Guimarães court who determined that he should be held in preventive custody pending extradition.
This of course may not be an end to the story. Only last week, national media cottoned onto the shock that a suspected murderer and sex-trafficker wanted in Colombia had evaded extradition on points of law (click here).
