BEIJING (Reuters) - China has detained an American follower of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement, accusing him of sabotaging television and radio broadcasting systems on the mainland, the U.S. embassy said Thursday.
But an Australian [practitioner] detained a week ago in southwestern China had been freed and was on her way home, an Australian embassy spokesman said.
U.S. citizen Chuck Lee was taken into police custody in the southern city of Guangzhou on January 22 and transferred two days later to the eastern city of Yangzhou, where he was accused of sabotaging broadcasting systems, an embassy spokeswoman said.
A U.S. consular official visited Lee, who appeared to be healthy, she said. No other details were available.
Falun Gong identified the detainee in a statement as Charles Li from Menlo Park, California. He denied the charges but could be jailed for up to 15 years if found guilty of hijacking the airwaves and cables to broadcast Falun Gong material.
Sydney resident Nancy Chen was aboard a flight bound for Australia Thursday, an embassy spokesman said without explaining why she had been held or specifying that she was a Falun Gong member.
The group's U.S.-based information center, which spelled her family name in a statement as Chan, said she was detained by police last week. It did not specify the charges against her.
The Australian embassy said it had sent a consular official to Sichuan province Wednesday to meet the detained 34-year-old. The diplomat had also talked to Chinese officials, but the spokesman declined to provide details.
The Falun Gong statement called the detentions "an alarming escalation to the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners."
[…]
Falun Gong says more than 1,600 members have died in police custody.
http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/reuters20030130_79.html
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