Nine years after Amanda Zhao was killed in B.C., her ex-boyfriend is set to stand trial in China for murder, thanks to a bit of diplomatic maneuvering.
The 21-year-old Chinese student was found dead in October 2002, her body stuffed into a suitcase in Stave Lake. Beginning Tuesday, Ang Li will stand trial for the killing in Beijing.
Li was a suspect in the murder, but left Canada for his home country two days after Zhao's body was found. He wasn't arrested until 2009, and Chinese officials said he couldn't be tried without information from investigators in B.C.
Canada and China don't have an extradition treaty, but a series of recent negotiations helped move the case forward.
"The Chinese government had agreed to waive the death penalty and with that, the federal government agreed to share evidence with Chinese authorities," NDP MLA Jenny Kwan told reporters Monday.
The move comes two months after China's most-wanted fugitive, Lai Changxing, was booted out of Canada. To achieve his deportation, the Chinese government assured Canadian officials that Lai would not be executed.
Immigration lawyer Richard Kurland says those negotiations may have paved the way for Li's trial.
"I think the return of Mr. Lai to China resulted in a watershed diplomatic moment. The death card on the table has been removed," Kurland told CTV News.
"Canada said, ‘We're not going to send him back if he's going to face the death penalty,' and today it's the same card played diplomatically once more."
Investigators believe Zhao was strangled to death. She was studying English at Coquitlam College at the time she was killed, and was living with Li in a basement suite.
Li reported her missing, but it wasn't until 11 days later that hikers discovered her mangled body in the woods.
After his flight to China, he lived with his father in a military compound until the time of his arrest. Li's cousin Han Zhang was also arrested in China and is accused of being an accessory to the murder.
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Bhinder Sajan
