Chinese man in Canada extradited to Japan over 1995 murder

He Liang (C), surrounded by Japanese policemen
arrives at the Narita international
airport in Narita, suburb

Tokyo, November 15, 2013: A 43-year-old Chinese man was extradited to Japan from Canada Friday on a passport violation charge as police in Tokyo hoping he could shed light on a triple murder there nearly twenty years ago.

He Liang arrived at Tokyo's Narita airport Friday afternoon, accompanied by Tokyo police who arrested him in Toronto on Thursday when he was handed over to them from Canadian police at a detention centre there, media reports said.

"He was arrested in Canada on suspicion of violating the passport control law [in Japan] on Thursday," a spokeswoman for the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department said.

His arrival at the airport was witnessed by a horde of Japanese reporters and photographers before he was taken to a police station in the Tokyo suburb of Hachioji for questioning.

It was in Hachioji in July 1995 that three female workers were shot dead at point-blank range in the head in a supermarket office.

The killer escaped without stealing money or jewellery from the victims or from a locked safe in the office, a fact which has puzzled police and given rise to speculation that the shooting was motivated by a personal grudge.

He, who had settled in Canada since 2006 when he landed there as a refugee, lived in Japan in 1995 and is believed to know the killer.

One of his Japanese acquaintances, a mobster executed in China in 2010 for drug trafficking, told Japanese police in 2009 that He "may know something about the culprit" as he knew about the murders in great detail, media reports said.

The victims -- a 47-year-old woman and two high school girls, aged 16 and 17 -- were all part-time workers.

The case shocked Japan where possession of firearms is tightly controlled despite sporadic gangland shooting incidents.

After tracking down the Chinese man, a native of Fujian province, Tokyo police demanded in 2010 that Canadian authorities extradite him for the relatively minor offence of leaving Japan for Hong Kong in April 2002 on a passport bearing a false identity, an MPD official said.

He later obtained permanent residency in Canada.

In September last year, a lower court in Canada approved his extradition to Japan and an appeal court upheld the decision in September this year.

"I don't know because it has been a long time," He was quoted as telling investigators about the passport law violation, according to media reports.

The MPD is set to question him about the murders as well, the reports said.

Courtesy: Yahoo.com