Lawyers say China using Interpol to seek dissident’s return | Politics

WASHINGTON (AP) – Lawyers are calling on the Biden government to release a Chinese democracy advocate who could be deported to his homeland on allegedly false allegations despite the lack of an extradition treaty between the United States and China.

Human rights lawyers say this is one of the few cases where China has used Interpol’s “red notice” system to force the return of refugees from the US. Under this system, a member country of the international police consortium can request other countries to arrest and deport refugees living abroad. It is not clear how often, if at all, these tactics resulted in the US extraditing detainees to Chinese authorities.

The man was arrested in June and is being held at a US Immigration and Customs detention center. The Associated Press withholds the man’s name because a sibling still living in China has reported being threatened with criminal charges by government officials unless his brother returns.

ICE says the man was arrested for violating his visa and has not commented on whether Chinese charges resulted in his detention. But the man’s lawyers say China is taking advantage of the U.S. immigration system to bypass American efforts to counter Beijing’s attacks on dissidents. The man and his immediate family are seeking asylum in the United States

A red notice posted in January accuses the man of leading a conspiracy to make illegal profits through a mining company and to recruit former prisoners to attack a supposed enemy. The man’s lawyers say other documents from the Chinese legal system show that he is charged with crimes that have already been linked to others.

“There are countries that are abusing Interpol’s red warning system, especially China,” said John Sandweg, one of the man’s lawyers. Sandweg, a former deputy director of ICE, said the agency risks being tampered with through red warning labels and “a tool” to pursue law-abiding activists and dissidents. “

According to ICE, the man was arrested after entering the country in September for exceeding his visa. A question about whether she arrested the man because of the red warning label or how this affects his case was not answered directly by the authorities. It states that “in some cases the interests of another law enforcement agency” in the US or abroad “may influence the analysis” of whether someone is deported or released.

China’s embassy in Washington and Interpol did not respond to requests for comment.

According to his lawyers, the man was serving as village chief when Chinese authorities tried to confiscate a friend’s home on a proposed industrial estate. The man says he allowed the villagers to protest peacefully and helped the friend protest directly against the central government.

The man says he was detained for 30 days in retaliation and eventually escaped with his family to Hong Kong, where he joined the territory protests when Beijing tried to tighten controls. Fearing re-arrest, he says he and his family entered the United States last year on a visa that gave them six months of legal permission.

The man’s lawyers say he first found out about Interpol’s editorial staff against him when an ICE lawyer notified him after an immigration court hearing. The red notice says that an arrest warrant was issued last August and that he faces a potential life sentence.

“What ICE does not understand well is that (a) Interpol Red Notice from China is highly political and is not a reliable indicator of real criminal activity,” said Yaqiu Wang, a China researcher with Human Rights Watch.

China is aggressively pursuing repatriation of people it considers to be opponents of the Communist Party’s leadership, including people living in the United States, in allegedly extrajudicial campaigns of harassment and targeting.

A federal grand jury this month indicted nine people for serving as agents in Operation Fox Hunt, which the Chinese government has described as an attempt to track down corrupt officials and criminals overseas. The Justice Department described Operation Fox Hunt as “extralegal” and alleged that the defendants “monitored and engaged in a harassment, persecution and coercion campaign” requested by Beijing to return to China.

Interpol came under fire in 2016 after a senior Chinese official, Meng Hongwei, was elected its president, with a warning that China would reassure itself.

Meng’s four-year tenure was cut short when he disappeared from France, where he and his family had moved, while visiting China in 2018.

Meng eventually reappeared, pleaded guilty to fraud allegations and was sentenced to 13 years in prison. His wife, who was eventually granted asylum in France with her children, said she believed Meng had been a victim of political persecution.

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed in any way without permission.