Three American citizens who were Arrested in China He was released, a State Department spokesman said Wednesday.
They are Mark Sweden, Kai Lee and John Leung.
Lee, 70, from Long Island, New York, was detained in 2016 and sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2018 on espionage charges his family says are unfounded. A businessman from Sweden, Texas, had been detained since 2012 and sentenced to death in 2019 after being convicted on drug-related charges that a United Nations working group said There is no evidence of
“Soon they will be back and reunited with their families for the first time in many years,” the spokesman said in a statement.
The announcement was made on Wednesday. A surprise release in September of American pastor David Lin, who, like Lee and Sweden, was wrongfully detained by the United States; He had been in prison in China since 2006 after being sentenced to life in prison for contract fraud.
The Doi Hua Foundation, which monitors prisoners’ rights in China, estimates that there are about 200 American prisoners, more than any other country, including Americans who are imprisoned as well as those who People who have been prevented from leaving the country while a case is under investigation. .
The State Department says only a handful of them have been wrongfully detained. Beijing says all cases are dealt with in accordance with the law. The Chinese Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment late Wednesday in Beijing.