Not the place I’d leave a mentally-ill person

The Chinese justice system does not exactly have a good record with the mentally-ill.

So I’m more than a little worried of what’s happened to the offender in today’s mid-air incident between Melbourne and Hong Kong:

A RANTING man threatened to kill terrified passengers onboard a Qantas flight from Melbourne to Hong Kong overnight.

“I’m going to kill myself, you will all die,” he screamed at shocked passengers on flight QF029.

The man was restrained and then:

A Qantas spokeswoman confirmed that there was an incident on QFO29 from Melbourne to Hong Kong where “a passenger became disruptive.”

“Hong Kong authorities met the aircraft on arrival,” she said.

Please tell me that our national carrier did not hand a quite possibly mentally-ill person over to the Chinese justice system.

Did they really have to do that? The offence wasn’t actually committed in China – is that really the right jurisdiction to deal with the matter? Couldn’t Qantas have restrained the man until they reached a country that doesn’t execute people who might well primarily need professional treatment and help?

UPDATE: Obviously, although it’s part of “the Chinese justice system” in a broader sense, Hong Kong has a somewhat different approach to the mainland – for now. I wonder if Qantas would’ve left this man in the hands of the authorities in Beijing – you’d hope not, but I don’t know.