On September 30, the Rome Court of Appeal upheld the...

On September 30, the Rome Court of Appeal upheld the request for extradition presented by the authorities of the People's Republic of China with regard to Song Zhicai, a Chinese citizen arrested in Italy on November 6, 1998, with a international warrant issued a month earlier by the Chinese legal authorities in Harbin. At first, Song Zhicai, who in China was the president of a finance company called the "Harbin Dadi Industrial Group," was accused of fraud (about $1.5 million), under Art. 192 of China's New Criminal Law, which provides for a maximum penalty of life imprisonment or even the death penalty in the case of particularly large sums. In an attempt to overturn the sentence pronounced by the Court of Appeal, which has granted extradition, Zhicai's defense counsel has presented an appeal to the Court of Cassation which has yet to reach a verdict. Should the Court of Cassation uphold the extradition, the ultimate decision lies with the Justice Minister who could refuse it on the basis of political motives (see: Italy).