Beijing prosecutors in talks with police to share fugitive data

Beijing prosecutors are negotiating with public security bodiesfor access to the police's information database used for fugitive repatriation in a move to improve prosecutors' work in capturing fugitives.

The police's database covers most fugitives' information that can help judicial officers to quickly confirm the suspects' specific location and speed up repatriation, Han Jun, deputy director of investigation and control department at Beijing People's Procuratorate, said on Tuesday.

"We're gaining experience in capture and advanced technology from the police, and hope to share their database and improve our work efficiency, even though we've made some strides in fugitive repatriation recently," Han said.

Beijing prosecutors have arrested 102 fugitives who are suspected of corruption and fled the country over the past five years, including one man who is on China's "100 most wanted economic fugitives" list, according to the procuratorate.

For example, on June 8, Sun Xin, a former cashier of the then Beijing Bureau of Press and Publication, was brought back from Cambodia after being on the run for almost seven years.

Sun, 46, was alleged to have embezzled "a large amount of public money" and transferred it to an account of a company under his name.

On the list of 100 persons wanted worldwide, released by Interpol's National Central Bureau of China in April, six suspects, including Sun, are under the investigation of Beijing prosecutors.

Sun is also the third suspect on the list to have returned to China.

"We're making efforts to find clues of the other five fugitives, but sometimes it's hard to confirm their exact location," Han said, adding that this is the reason they are talking with the police to share the database.

"For instance, we know a suspect fled to Canada, but we don't know the specific city, which becomes a great challenge for capture, let alone repatriation," he said. "If we can make an agreement with the public security bodies to share the database, I believe our captures will be accelerated."

Huang Baoyue, deputy chief procurator of Beijing People's Procuratorate, echoed him, saying the capital's anti-graft prosecutors are trying their best to collect fugitives' clues and urge those who have been found in other countries to return to China or surrender.

"We have also taken some measures to restrict officials who are suspected of graft who allegedly transfer money and family members to foreign countries," Huang said. "We suggest that frontier departments restrict these officials' transfers after we have solid clues and require their workplaces to enforce stricter restrictions on their passports and related certificates."

Both the prosecutors suggested the government sign more extradition treaties with other countries, including the United States and Australia, "because if we don't have the treaties, it's too difficult to make fugitives return to China," said Han.