On Thursday 12 November Foreign Minister Dan Neculăescu spoke with the family of Alina Apostol, a Romanian citizen serving a prison sentence in China. He told them the Foreign Ministry remains engaged: through the consular network it follows her rights, the conditions of detention and her health, and it keeps in touch with the local authorities. The work is coordinated with the Ministry of Justice. Neculăescu wrote that he will not step back from this dialogue. It is an assurance, not a date on which she leaves China.

Alina-Irina Apostol has been detained in China since 2017, according to AGERPRES. A Ministry of Justice statement of 3 November says a court in Shishi, Fujian province, sentenced her to prison, to a fine and, jointly with two other people, to compensation for the victims of the offence. Press reports put the term at thirteen and a half years for bank-card fraud. The sentence is one handed down by Chinese courts; this piece does not retry it.

The Bucharest Court of Appeal adapted the sentence to nine years and four months under Romanian law and ordered the rest to be served in a Romanian prison. That order has not been carried out. Romania and China have no treaty on the transfer of sentenced persons. The Ministry of Justice says the file proceeds on international courtesy and reciprocity, not on an agreement that binds Beijing.

Chinese law requires, for the transfer to be completed, payment of the fine and of the compensation set in the judgment. Alina’s father paid the fine in August 2024. After that payment the Chinese authorities resumed examining the file, and the competent court agreed to the adaptation of the sentence under Romanian law. They have repeated, including to the Romanian Embassy in Beijing, that the procedure does not close without the outstanding compensation to the victims.

The Ministry of Justice has said it has no legal basis to pay those sums itself. It has discussed other ways of paying with the family, because the amount is large. Until the compensation is paid, the transfer stays conditional. Thursday’s meeting between the minister and the family does not lift that condition and does not set a date for her return.

Image: Wikimedia Commons — the Palace of Justice in Bucharest (Britchi Mirela, CC BY-SA 4.0).

Sources consulted: Romanian woman imprisoned for nearly nine years in China could be transferred home — ProTV News; Statement on Alina-Irina Apostol — Ministry of Justice; Foreign minister assures family of Romanian woman detained in China of support — AGERPRES.