Zambian authorities extradited a Chinese national who fled Malawi last month over allegations of selling exploitative videos to China of Malawian children.
Malawi police told VOA on Sunday that their Zambian counterparts handed Lu Ke over to them on Saturday night in Mchinji district, on the border with Zambia.
“He is in police custody. It was delivered by our friends from Zambia. So far he has been charged with human smuggling but other charges may be added,” said Harry Namwaza, deputy spokesman for the Malawi Police Service.
Lu Ke fled Malawi last month, where police were looking for him after an investigation by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) found he was filming young villagers in central Malawi and making them say racist things about themselves in Mandarin. .
In one video, children, some as young as nine, are heard saying in Mandarin that they are a “black freak” and have a “low IQ”.
The BBC reported that he was selling the videos for up to $70 each to a Chinese website. The children who acted in the videos were paid around half a dollar each.
The news sparked outrage in Malawi, prompting several human rights organizations to stage street protests and petition the Chinese Embassy in the capital, Lilongwe.
In the petition, the protesters called on the Chinese government to compensate the children in the videos for being tricked into saying words in a foreign language that they could not understand.
Comfort Mankhwazi is the chair of the University of Malawi Child Rights Law Clinic, which led the protests.
She told VOA on Sunday that she is happy with the extradition.
“Because we felt like this is one of those things that we had in our petition, what we wanted, and we got it. We really hope that this extradition and arrest will lead to something big like prosecution in our courts and finally those victims can get the justice that they deserve,” he said.
There was no official comment from Chinese authorities on Lu Ke’s extradition as of Sunday.
However, police spokesman Namwaza said Lu Ke is expected to appear in court soon.
This article is republished from – Voa News – Read the – original article.
