Overview
- Italy has transferred 33-year-old engineer Xu Zewei to U.S. custody after the Justice Ministry approved the extradition procedure.
- Xu was arrested last July at Milan’s Malpensa airport on a U.S. warrant that accused him of spy-related cyber offenses.
- A Milan appeals court accepted the U.S. request on January 27, and Italy’s Supreme Court rejected the defense appeal on April 16.
- U.S. authorities allege Xu joined a team that targeted U.S. universities and medical researchers from February 2020, including work on COVID-19 vaccines and therapies at the University of Texas.
- The FBI links the alleged activity to Hafnium, described as a large-scale Chinese state-directed intrusion campaign, while Xu’s lawyer says someone may have used his identity and plans to test how investigators tied the actions to him.