Beijing: Matthew Ng, the high-profile Australian entrepreneur whose controversial incarceration in China strained diplomatic ties, has won the right to serve out his sentence at home, in the first prisoner transfer of its kind between the two countries.
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Ng, 48, was the high-flying founder of a listed travel business before he was arrested in November 2010. Charged with bribery, embezzlement and related corporate charges, he was sentenced to 11½ years in April 2012 by a Guangdong court, in a case which offered a sobering insight into the influence of powerful state-owned enterprises and the murkier aspects of China's judicial system.
Ng departed on a flight from Guangzhou on Friday afternoon and was taken to Sydney's Silverwater correctional facility upon arrival for processing. It is understood that under the terms of the transfer and factoring in parole, Ng will walk free from prison considerably earlier than the full term of his sentence.
"I've never ever seen him happier," Ng's sister, Lee, said of the last time she visited him in prison in China, back in July, when Australian officials knew the transfer would definitely go ahead.
The transfer will also afford Ng better living conditions and vastly improved visitation rights for his relieved family, including his wife Niki Chow, and three children, aged 16, 12 and 9. In China, Ng was granted a 20-minute visit from family once a month and a five-minute phone call twice a month.
"Of course we are all very happy," Ms Chow told Fairfax Media.
Ng is the first Australian prisoner to be transferred since a prisoner transfer agreement between China and Australia came into effect in November 2011.
It comes at time when Beijing, as part of a global manhunt codenamed Operation Fox Hunt, is pushing for greater governmental and police co-operation in tracking down corrupt Chinese officials who have fled to Australia. The two countries also agreed on a landmark bilateral free trade agreement last month.
Australian officials made the transfer request after Ng's avenues for legal appeal were exhausted in 2012. The decision was granted in April 2014 – around the time of Tony Abbott's first visit to China as prime minister.
But while the transfer is a positive development, one former China-based diplomat who has followed the case closely said it did nothing to alter the murky nature of the prosecutor's case against Ng.
"It's still a travesty of justice," the person said.
The case came amid a string of others involving Australians of ethnic Chinese background, including cardiac surgeon Du Zuying and entrepreneur Charlotte Chou – who is due for release in late December after more than six years in jail.
Lawyers who defended Ng in the original trial, led by lawyer Chen Youxi, had described many of the prosecutor's arguments as "ridiculous" and a blatant ploy by his former business partners to wrest control of the company. An alleged "bribe", he said, had been declared clearly as directors fees in a tax return and the company's annual report.
Ng's sister said her family were simply relieved to have him back on Australian soil having worried about his wellbeing in harsh Chinese jail conditions since he was first arrested in 2010.
"I've been waiting for four years," Lee said. "Thank God it's all over now."
The Australian Attorney-General's Department was contacted for comment.
