Alleged smuggling kingpin and head of the Yuan Hua Group Lai
Changxing will have the hearing of his appeal against the Canadian
immigration court's decision to keep him and his wife Tsang Mingna
in detention brought forward at the Federal Court on Thursday.
The couple were originally due to have their appeal heard at the
immigration court on December 21 but they sought to take their case
to the higher federal level, where it will be decided if they
should be kept in detention pending a hearing of Lai's claims to
political asylum.
Lai's lawyer, Darryl Larson, appeared in Federal Court Friday and
sought leave for a review of the couple's detention order. Judge
Doug Campbell allowed the application and adjourned the case to
December 14. The lawyer will ask the court to declare Lai's
immigration arrest warrant void as authorities failed to give sound
reasons for the move.
(People's Daily 12/11/2000)