The Court of Appeal issued its judgment on Tuesday for a China extradition case dating back to 2011. In the first case of its kind between the two countries, the decisions of the Justice Ministry have been quashed and will have to be reconsidered, Deutsche Welle reported.
Overturning decisions to grant extradition to China of a Korean citizen living in New Zealand by then Justice Minister Amy Adams, the court cited the "difficulty that exists in obtaining assurances adequate to meet the risk of torture in a country where torture is illegal yet remains widespread because of cultural and systemic features of the PRC (People's Republic of China) criminal justice system."
Adams twice approved extradition, after China gave assurances the accused would not be executed.
However, the court ruled that the minister had not gone far enough: "New Zealand has obligations under international law to refuse to return a person to a jurisdiction in which they will be at substantial risk of torture or where they will not receive a fair trial," Justice Helen Winkelmann of the Court of Appeal said on Tuesday.