By 3news.co.nz staff
New Zealand policeman Hywel Jones has just entered Shanghai’s Second Intermediate Court ahead of the trial for the murder of Auckland taxi driver Hiren Mohini.
Detective Sergeant Jones was surrounded by a group of media and did not answer questions before entering court.
Shortly afterwards the footage shows a police officer blocking the cameraman from filming the court.
DS Jones was in charge of the New Zealand inquiry, he is accompanied by another officer who can speak Mandarin.
They are the only people from New Zealand at the trial.
Chinese citizen Xia Zhen, 23, will stand trial tonight in China for the murder of Mr Mohini.
Xiao Zhen, 23, is accused of stabbing 39-year-old Mr Mohini to death in January last year in Mt Eden.
Xiao fled to China just days after the attack, but was arrested there in June.
It's the first time anyone accused of murder in New Zealand has been tried in another country.
China uses capital punishment – but if Xiao is found guilty he won't face the death penalty, at the request of the New Zealand police.
Doubts have been cast as to whether the Chinese will adhere to the agreement, though.
Prominent defence lawyer John Haigh, QC, told 3 News in June the agreement is “worthless”.
“If it suits the Communist Party of China or the government to not comply with any undertaking then they won’t, so in terms of reliability it’s worthless.”
An international expert in Chinese law (whom we can't name for legal reasons) told 3 News: “They won’t execute him formally, as in you won’t see an execution on this if he goes [to jail], but once he goes within the walls of the prison there is an alarming rate of 'heart attacks' amongst Chinese prisoners - people who have never had heart disease before.”
Xiao might be spared because his crime was not political – he is not a threat to the dictatorial Communist regime.
“If he were a major thorn in Beijing’s side, if he were a leading dissident or somebody who is accused of big time corruption, they might give the assurance and just see that he was taking care of in prison," the expert told 3 News.
“There are a lot of ways of doing that - they sometimes instigate other prisoners to beat and once in a while kill a target, otherwise there is just an alarming number of prominent prisoners who die in prison."
If Xiao is convicted, he will serve his sentence in China.
3 News