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| Disgraced Chinese politician Bo Xilai seen in Beijing in March. A French architect with ties to Bo and his wife has been arrested in Cambodia, the French embassy in Phnom Penh said Tuesday. "We've been informed by the Cambodian authorities of the arrest of our compatriot Mr. (Patrick) Devillers," an embassy spokeswoman told AFP, in the latest twist to China's biggest political scandal in decades |
Cambodian police said the arrest
of Patrick Devillers was carried out with the cooperation of Beijing,
which is seeking his extradition.
"We've been informed by the
Cambodian authorities of the arrest of our compatriot Mr. Devillers," a
French embassy spokeswoman told AFP.
Officials were seeking "clarification" about the reason for the arrest, she said.
Devillers is understood to have been a close business associate and friend of Bo and his wife Gu Kailai.
Bo, the former leader of the
southwestern Chinese megacity of Chongqing, is being probed for
corruption while Gu has been detained for suspected involvement in the
murder of British businessman Neil Heywood last year.
Phnom Penh police chief Touch
Naruth confirmed that a French national was arrested "about two weeks
ago" but declined to give details, saying only the arrest was made "with
the cooperation of China".
"We are considering whether to
send him to China or France. China has demanded he be sent to China
because he committed offences there," he told AFP.
Devillers' connection to the Bo
family drama remains unclear but in an interview with French daily Le
Monde last month he denied allegations of any wrongdoing.
Devillers, 52, who is believed
to have left China in 2005, also told the newspaper that his old
acquaintance Heywood, who was found dead in a hotel room in Chongqing in
November, was "a noble soul".
According to the New York Times,
Devillers was hired by Bo, mayor of the Chinese city of Dalian in the
1990s, to carry out architectural work.
And in 2000, Devillers and Gu
set up an architectural firm together, the US daily reported in May,
noting that the pair put down the same residential address in
Bournemouth, southeast England, in their paperwork.
The scandal surrounding Bo and
Gu, which first came to light in February and made worldwide headlines,
has exposed deep divisions within the Communist Party ahead of a
crucial, once-in-a-decade leadership transition, analysts say.
Bo was a member of the powerful
Politburo and had been tipped for promotion to the nine-member Politburo
Standing Committee, China's most powerful political body, during the
leadership transition.
But his hopes of winning a spot
on the body were ended by his fall from grace, which began when his
former right-hand man and police chief Wang Lijun fled to a nearby US
consulate to seek asylum, after reportedly confronting Bo with
information related to the murder of Heywood.
News of Devillers' arrest comes
just a week after He Guoqiang, a member of the Politburo Standing
Committee, paid a visit to Phnom Penh during which multi-million dollar
infrastructure deals were signed.
It is unclear whether there is
any link between the "goodwill" visit and Devillers' arrest. Phnom Penh
is a close ally of China and Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen regularly
praises Bejiing's no-strings-attached aid.
China is Cambodia's largest
bilateral creditor and its biggest foreign investor, with hundreds of
Chinese companies pumping billions of dollars into the impoverished
country in recent years.
In 2009, Cambodia was widely
criticised for deporting 20 Uighur asylum seekers to China, a move that
was quickly followed by a 1.2-billion-dollar aid and loan package from
Beijing. China rejected accusations of a link between the two.
source:
06/19/2012
AFP
06/19/2012
AFP
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