Ruling on Taiwanese businessman's extradition upheld

Photo: Elmo Riig / Sakala

An Estonian second-tier court has upheld a lower court's earlier ruling that the extradition of Hsien Tai Tsai, a Taiwanese businessman suspected by U.S. legal authorities of smuggling strategic goods to North Korea, is legally permissible.

The Tallinn Circuit Court heard the case on the basis of Tai Tsai's appeal.

The circuit court's ruling on the matter is final. After that the justice minister will pass the decision on the extradition of the suspect, which in turn can be contested in all three tiers of the judiciary. In case that happens, the Supreme Court will have the final word.

The Harju County Court found at the beginning of July that the extradition of the Taiwanese businessman to the United States is legally permissible but not based on all of the charges lodged against the 67-year-old.

The court specifically pointed out that the act which brought money laundering charges against Hsien Tai Tsai in the United States is not money laundering under Estonian law. It came out from the materials supplied by the U.S. authorities that Tai Tsai executed a money transfer between the United States and Taiwan even though the U.S. authorities had forbidden him from doing it. It does not appear from the suspicion that the transfer served criminal interests. Thus, the Taiwanese businessman will not be extradited to the United States based on that charge and he must not be tried in the United States based on that charge, the Estonian court said.

Likewise the court did not see a criminal offense in Tai Tsai's action in providing money for the operation of a piece of strategic goods, or drilling device. But the court found that Tai Tsai did violate the law in presenting false information as regards the shipment of the drilling device, which constitutes an act of smuggling of strategic goods under Estonian law. On the basis of that charge the court deemed the extradition legally permissible.

Tai Tsai was detained in Tallinn on May 1 on the basis of a U.S. provisional arrest request and remanded in custody for 30 days under a court warrant on May 2, spokespeople for the Public Prosecutor's Office have said.

The U.S. authorities said at the beginning of May that the Taiwanese businessman detained in Estonia is together with his son suspected of trying to bypass a U.S. ban on the export of machinery that could have been used for weapons production in North Korea. The businessman's 36-year-old son, Yueh Hseun Tsai, was arrested the same day at his home in Glenview, Illinois.

The machinery includes ones that drill precise holes in metal.

Prosecutors said the U.S. authorities banned the father already in 2009 from doing any business in the United States as suspicions around him grew. But the complaint says he continued trying to export machines from the United States with his son's help.

He was also indicted by Taiwanese prosecutors in 2008 for forging shipping invoices and illegally shipping restricted materials to North Korea.

The two men each face up to 20 years in prison and up to 1.75 million U.S. dollars in fines if convicted.