Published 31 May 2017
Chinese fugitive Ren Biao taken into the Basseterre Police Station
BASSETERRE, ST. KITTS, May 31ST 2017 – Chinese fugitive Ren Biao is now at the Basseterre Police Station in St. Kitts.
“They just took him into the Basseterre Police Station. Some well-dressed persons just took him inside from a blue pickup,” an informed source said.
The individual who was nearby said the “well-dresed persons” do not appear to be local police officer.
“Ren was also well dressed in jacket and tie like the persons who took him inside,” said the source.
Ren was held on Nevis after intense diplomatic pressure from several quarters on St. Kitts and Nevis’ Prime Minister Dr. the Hon. Timothy Harris.
The Chinese national wanted in Beijing for defrauding state-owned companies of US$100 million.
According to a reliable source, Ren was located either Monday night or early Tuesday morning in Rawlins, Nevis and was taken to the Cotton Ground Police Station where he was interviewed and processed.
Two Friday’s ago CaribUpdate which has been covering the story extensively reported that top security officials in St. Kitts and Nevis have said they cannot locate the Chinese native after regional counterparts had urged them to have the man interviewed.
CaribUpdate said it had seen a note from a top Kittitian official who is claiming that the man might have changed his location since he is apparently not at the address that they had guided Chinese police agents to in April and that St. Kitts and Nevis security official could not say whether the man was still in St Kitts.
China has openly accused the Team Unity Government of Prime Minister Harris of refusing a request to hand him over Ren ciiting the need for due process.
In a statement from its embassies around the world, the Peoples Republic of China said St. Kitts and Nevis is fast becoming a haven for criminals by harbouring Ren Biao and accused Prime Minister Harris of being un-cooperative on the issue. Biao, who is on the Interpol list, is wanted in China for defrauding a state-owned company of US$100 million.
China said it had intercepted communication on April 16 in which the fugitive, who is in St. Kitts and is an economic citizen, called relatives in Beijing seeking an additional US$190,000 to help to continue pay for his protection by Kittitian authorities.
The Government first denied having informal or formal information on the matter, but regional media outlet, CaribUpdate said its own investigation revealed that the Ren Biao matter was raised via an unnamed Caribbean country with the Timothy Harris-led Administration in January this year.
“There was a direct request made on the issue of Ren Biao in January to (Miss Kay Bass), the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in St. Kitts and Nevis from the Permanent Secretary of another Caribbean country,” CaribUpdate said.
The regional media house said this was also followed by direct communications between the Head of the Financial Intelligence Unit of St. Kitts and Nevis, Ms. Jacqueline Berry and the same Caribbean country and its counterpart in Basseterre.
CaribUpdate further reported that at the meeting in Basseterre, officials of the Timothy Harris Government and law enforcement officers including members of the High Command were provided with details of the claims of financial impropriety.
The Head of the Financial Service Unit in St. Kitts and Nevis and the Head of the unnamed Caribbean country subsequently met in Basseterre in April this year on the Ren Biao issue.
CaribUpdate also said that Kittitian security officials met with Chinese security officials over the issue in early April this year after they were granted a visa waiver from Basseterre to enter St. Kitts and Nevis.
They were met on arrival at the Robert L. Bradshaw International Airport by St. Kitts security officials on April 14th and spent a week on the island.
Prime Minister Harris has admitted knowledge of the request to handover Biao, but the questions remain, who in his government has been offering protection to Re
