Switzerland’s federal criminal court has refused a request to liberate a Chinese researcher wanted in the US for suspected spying, according to 20 Minutes.
The release request was made by the Chinese researcher who is living in Switzerland and accused of corporate espionage in the US against the drug maker GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).
The US embassy in Bern requested the man’s arrest on 18 July 2018 with a view to his extradition to the US. The request came from a court in the US state of Pennsylvania.
The man is a Chinese citizen who has lived in Switzerland with his family for 20 years. However, the Swiss court was concerned the man might flee given the potential prison sentence of up to 20 years if he’s found guilty in the US.
The court in Pennsylvania has been conducting an inquiry into the possibility that five Chinese-Americans transmitted the results of anticancer drug tests at GSK to Renopharm, a Delaware company with subsidiaries in China. Two of the accused have already pleaded guilty.
The Swiss-based man, also involved in anticancer research, is the brother of one of those under investigation in the US inquiry.
The judgement from Switzerland’s federal criminal court is not definitive and could be overturned by the federal tribunal, Switzerland’s highest court.
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