HARBIN -- The authorities in Russia's far eastern region have repatriated a Chinese man who has been on the run from the Chinese authorities since 1998.

Yang Zhongyi, a fugitive from Quyang, north China's Hebei province, has been in hiding since he killed a man in his village. He had escaped to Shanxi and Jilin before crossing the Sino-Russian border to the Far East in March, 2006, where he was subsequently caught by Russia border patrol forces.

He was sentenced to a year in prison in Primorskij Kraj, a district in the Far East, for crossing the border illegally. On Monday, he was transferred to the public security department of north China's Heilongjiang province.

Yang is the fifth fugitive Russia has repatriated since the Russian district signed agreements with the Heilongjiang police in 2004 to deepen cooperation in cross-border judicial actions, officials said.