By Poppy McPherson and Panu Wongcha-um
BANGKOK (Reuters) – A jailed gambling tycoon fighting extradition to China received “inhumane treatment” in a Thai prison after saying he was a Chinese spy, his lawyers told Interpol, saying they fear for his life.
She Zhijiang, born in China and a Cambodian citizen, suffered violence that left him unable to stand and received unwanted visits from Chinese officials, lawyers said in a letter to the international police organization , consulted by Reuters.
The tycoon was arrested in Bangkok in 2022 on the basis of an international arrest warrant and an Interpol red notice requested by Beijing, which accuses him of running illegal online gambling operations in Southeast Asia. She and her lawyers have said the case was politically motivated.
In their letter to Interpol, dated January 9 and shared with Reuters, the lawyers said he had been kept in solitary confinement, shackled, denied medical treatment for a spinal injury and deprived of contact with his family. family.
The tycoon was subject to “particularly inhumane treatment” and human rights violations of an “institutional character”, wrote lawyers Clara Gérard-Rodriguez and Pierre-Olivier Sur of the French law firm FTMS Avocats.
“These elements make us seriously fear for the life of our client,” add the lawyers.
China’s Foreign Ministry told Reuters in a statement that she was a Chinese national and a “key figure in crimes related to online gambling and telecommunications fraud”, saying the evidence against him were “conclusive”.
He welcomed the decision by Thai courts to extradite him, calling the move an important achievement in law enforcement cooperation between Thailand and China. His lawyers are appealing the extradition decision.
Thailand’s Justice Ministry declined to comment, referring questions to the Department of Correctional Services, which did not immediately respond.
An Interpol Red Notice must comply with the organization’s rules, “under which any activity of a political, military, religious or racial nature is strictly prohibited,” an Interpol spokesperson said, declining to comment further. .
TRAFFIC UNIONS
She said last year that his detention followed his refusal to obey orders from Chinese authorities, who he said had asked him to develop a town on the Thai-Myanmar border.
“They wanted a colony. I wanted to do business,” she told Al Jazeera in a documentary broadcast on September 26.
China has stepped up pressure on Southeast Asian countries to crack down on Chinese-origin gambling and fraud gangs since the kidnapping and cross-border rescue of a Chinese actor this month- These sparked a storm on social networks.
In recent years, the region has become a magnet for gambling operations, some involving fraud and human trafficking by criminal syndicates, many of which are of Chinese origin.
Days after the Al Jazeera documentary aired, she was transferred to a maximum security prison in Bangkok, where people serving long sentences and sentenced to death are held, her lawyers said.
In late October, the lawyers said, “She was “brutally attacked” by police and inmates who accused her of violating discipline. Unable to walk or stand, he now uses a wheelchair, they said. The incident was also described in a police report seen by Reuters.
Twice in December, the lawyers said, Chinese embassy officials visited him in prison against his will, seeking to persuade him to return to China. In one meeting, they said, officials suggested that his family and friends might need help from the embassy, which he interpreted as a threat.
GAMING EMPIRE
His lawyers are seeking to have the Interpol red notice requesting his extradition quashed.
“China’s flagrant abuses of procedure and gross human rights violations undermine international judicial cooperation and should in themselves constitute an obstacle to extradition,” Gérard-Rodriguez told Reuters.
Reuters could not independently verify these claims.
At the time of her arrest, she was running a gaming empire that was developing a $15 billion casino, entertainment and tourism complex called Shwe Kokko on the Myanmar-Thailand border. The group, Yatai International Holdings Group, also had investments in Cambodia and the Philippines.
The company has denied any involvement in criminal activities, including human trafficking.
The tycoon told Al Jazeera he was recruited in the Philippines by China’s Ministry of State Security, the main agency overseeing foreign intelligence, in exchange for dropping criminal charges against him.
China’s Ministry of State Security could not be reached for a request for comment.
She said he had worked alongside a former Philippine mayor, Alice Guo, also known as Chinese national Guo Hua Ping. She was removed from office for misconduct and was investigated by the Philippine Senate last year for potential links to offshore gambling operations targeting Chinese customers.
Guo, accused of corruption and money laundering, has denied being a Chinese spy and dismissed other accusations as malicious.