Written by Bobby McVson, Pano and Wongsha Om
BANCOC (Reuters) – Lawyers of an imprisoned gambling man who opposed his handing over to China said he had received “inhuman treatment” in Thailand prison after he said he was a Chinese spy, his lawyer told Interpol, saying they were afraid of his life.
Lawyers said in a letter to the International Police Organization, seen by Reuters, that Shi Chigyg, born in China, who holds Cambodian citizenship, suffered from violence that made him unable to stand and receive unwanted visits from Chinese officials.
Bangkok businessman was arrested in 2022 based on an international memorandum and a red newsletter from Interpol requested by Beijing, which accuses him of managing illegal gambling operations online in Southeast Asia. She and his lawyers said that the issue is of political motives.
In their letter to INTERPOL, on January 9, which was seen by Reuters, the lawyers said that he was detained in solitary confinement and a chains, and was deprived of medical treatment for a spine injury, and was deprived of contacting his family.
Lawyers Clara Gerard Rodriguez and Pierre Olivier, a FTMS Avocats, wrote that the businessman was “specially inhuman treatment” and human rights violations of “institutional nature”.
Lawyers added: “These elements lead us to serious fear of the life of our client.”
The Chinese Foreign Ministry told Reuters in a statement that she was a Chinese citizen and “a major personality in Internet gambling and fraud by communications”, saying that the evidence was “conclusive.”
She welcomed the decision taken by the Thai courts to hand it over, and described the move as an important achievement in the Thai Chinese cooperation in the field of law enforcement. Its lawyers appeal the ruling.
The Thai Ministry of Justice refused to comment, and referred questions to the prison administration, which was not immediately answered.
An Interpol spokesman said that the red newsletter issued by INTERPOL must comply with the rules of the organization, “according to which any activity of a political, military, religious, or racist nature is strongly prohibited,” refusing to make more comments.
Trade gangs
Last year, his arrest came after he refused to submit to the orders of the Chinese authorities, which he said had ordered him to develop a town on the Thai border of Myanmar.
“They wanted a colony. I wanted to do business,” she told Al -Jazeera in a documentary film that was broadcast on September 26.
China has intensified its pressure on Southeast Asian countries to suppress gambling and fraud gangs of Chinese since it raised the kidnapping of a Chinese representative and saved him across the border this month a fire storm on social media.
In recent years, the region has become a gambling point of attraction, some of which include fraud and human trafficking by criminal gangs, and many of them are of Chinese origin.
Her lawyers said that days after the documentary of Al -Jazeera’s documentary, she was transferred to a highly guarded prison in Bangkok, where people who spend long sentences are being held and waiting for the death sentence.
In late October, the lawyers said: “He was brutally dealt with” by the officers and prisoners who accused him of violating discipline. They said he was unable to walk or stand, and is now using a wheelchair. The accident was also described in a police report seen by Reuters.
Lawyers said that the Chinese embassy officials visited her twice in December in prison against his will, in an effort to persuade him to return to China. They said that in one of the meetings, the officials indicated that his family and friends may need help from the embassy, which he explained as a threat.
Gambling
Its lawyers seek to cancel the red Interpol bulletin that seeks to deliver it.
“The flagrant violations of the procedures and the grave human rights violations committed by China undermines international judicial cooperation and should be an obstacle to delivery,” Gerard Rodriguez told Reuters.
Reuters could not independently verify these allegations.
At the time of his arrest, he headed the gambling empire that developed a casino and a $ 15 billion entertainment complex called Shui Coco on the Myanmar border. The group, Yatay International Holding Group, also had investments in Cambodia and the Philippines.
The company denied its involvement in any criminal activities, including human trafficking.
The businessman told the island that he was recruited in the Philippines by the Chinese Ministry of State, the main agency that supervises foreign intelligence, in exchange for a criminal case against him.
It was not possible to contact the Chinese Ministry of State Security to request the comment.
She said he worked with former Philippine mayors Alice Joe, also known as Chinese citizen Joe Hua Bing. She was dismissed from her position due to misconduct and under investigation by the Philippine Senate last year for her potential relations with external gambling operations targeting Chinese customers.
Qouh, who faces charges of graft and money laundering, denied that he was a Chinese spy and rejected other accusations, describing it as malicious.
