By Lee Hyo-sik
A Seoul court decided Thursday not to extradite a Chinese man suspected of committing an arson attack on the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo in 2011.
The ruling is feared to further aggravate the already rock-bottom diplomatic relations with Japan.
Japan has demanded the Korean government hand over Liu Qiang, 38, who served a prison term here for a separate attack on the Japanese Embassy in Seoul early last year, so that he could be tried for the arson attack. He had confessed to committing the crime to law enforcement officials here.
However, China has asked Seoul to send Liu back to his home country, insisting he is a “political prisoner” protesting Japan’s wartime atrocities.
``Extraditing Liu Qiang, who committed a political crime, to Japan goes against the nation’s political order and its Constitution. This would also deny the universal values of most civilized countries,’’ the Seoul High Court said in its ruling. ``Liu harmed no one with the arson attack, while no significant property damage occurred. Given all these, it is difficult to say he committed a serious, cruel and anti-humanity crime.’’
Liu, who was detained in prison prior to the extradition hearing, was released following the ruling. He is expected to leave for China soon.
The Chinese man is alleged to have set fire to the gates of Japan’s Yasukuni Shrine in December 2011. Following the incident, he left Japan for Korea and hurled Molotov cocktails at the Japanese Embassy building in Seoul in January last year to protest Tokyo's refusal to apologize for its war crimes.
He served a 10-month prison term.
But before being released in November, the Seoul court issued a warrant to prolong his detention for the duration of the extradition trial.
Japan asked Korea to hand him over through formal diplomatic channels in May. But China demanded Liu be repatriated, arguing he was a political prisoner attacking Japan for its refusal to apologize to Korean women forced into sexual slavery by its military during World War II.
The government said Thursday that it respects the court decision, indicating it will not extradite him to Japan. ``We fully respect the court ruling. We expect both Japan and China to do the same,’’ a government official said.