Singapore banker held in China without lawyer access:
fiance
BEIJING - Police in China have held a Singaporean
banker for two weeks without allowing her access to a lawyer after
her client allegedly fled the country with millions of dollars, her
fiance said Monday.
Eden Wu, who has worked in Shanghai for Standard
Chartered's private banking business for nine months, was detained
on March 6 as she prepared to travel to Singapore for her wedding,
Jason Tan told AFP.
Police are investigating one of her clients, who
allegedly escaped China with his family with millions in embezzled
funds, he said.
"She is being questioned every day, she can't make phone calls, and
she hasn't been allowed to see her lawyer," Tan said, adding that
representatives at the Singapore consulate and Wu's parents had
been able to visit her on Friday.
"Her mum said she has lost a lot of weight, and that she had dark
circles under her eyes," he added.
Standard Chartered confirmed Wu's detention in a statement emailed
to AFP, but said the firm was unable to comment due to the police
probe. "But we can confirm that Standard Chartered is not being
investigated," it said.
A spokeswoman for the Communist Party committee in Wuxi city, where
Wu is being held, also confirmed the detention, saying it was due
to "her involvement in a bank issue."
"We cannot say more about this, as police investigations are not
finished," she said. Police refused to comment.
Tan -- an American who works in the United States -- said his
fiancee had been cooperating with police in their probe before her
detention.
But when Wu informed them she was leaving China for her wedding,
police summoned her and took her in, he said, adding authorities
had not allowed him to see her because he had talked to journalists
and posted information online.
"They said I could see her if I promised not to post anything on
the Internet or talk to the media," he said.
"I was really shocked but I said I couldn't do that, as I feel like
if this story isn't told, they will just have free rein to do
whatever they want to," he said.
Wu is the latest foreigner working in China to have been detained
by police in sometimes controversial circumstances.
Australian national Stern Hu -- who worked for mining giant Rio
Tinto -- was detained in 2009 and eventually sentenced to 10 years
in prison on bribery and trade secrets charges.
Xue Feng, a Chinese-born American geologist, was also jailed for
eight years last year on state secret charges over the sale of a
database on China's oil industry, despite repeated US calls to
release him.
- AFP/ir
