CNN report
The US State Department said Thursday it is “disappointed” by a Chinese court’s decision to uphold the death sentence for American citizen Mark Swidan and called for his immediate release.
“Today the People’s Republic of China’s Jiangmen Intermediate Court denied wrongfully detained US national Mark Swidan’s appeal, and upheld his death penalty with a two-year suspended death sentence,” State Department principal deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel said in a statement.
“We are disappointed by this decision and will continue to press for his immediate release and return to the United States,” Patel said.
Swidan, a businessman from Texas, has been detained in China for more than a decade since he was arrested in 2012 on drug-related charges.
He was convicted of manufacturing and trafficking drugs in 2019 by the Jiangmen Intermediate People’s Court in southern Guangdong province and given a death sentence with a two-year reprieve.
Under Chinese law, the reprieve means Swidan’s sentence may be commuted to life imprisonment after two years, subject to his conduct during this period.
A United Nations working group concluded in 2020 that Swidan had been arbitrarily detained in violation of international law and urged his immediate release.
https://edition.cnn.com/2023/04/14/china/us-citizen-death-sentence-upheld-china-intl-hnk/index.html
