Canberra authorities said today that Australian anchor Cheng Lei has been formally arrested and charged with “illegally providing state secrets overseas” after being detained for six months in China for investigation.
Cheng Lei, a commercial anchor for China Global Television Network (CGTN), a subsidiary of the Communist Party’s official media CCTV, disappeared in August last year and has not been seen in public since then. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) reports that Cheng Lei has not been charged or had access to a lawyer for the past six months.
AFP reported today that Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne said she had been informed by the Chinese that Cheng Lei had been formally arrested on the 5th of this month.
Payne said Australian diplomats had visited her six times since she was detained, most recently on the 27th of last month.
“The Australian government regularly reflects to senior levels its serious concerns about Ms. Cheng Lei, including her physical and psychological condition and the circumstances of her detention,” she said. We expect basic justice, procedural fairness and humane treatment to meet international normative standards,” she said.
Born in China, Cheng Lei moved to Brisbane with her Parents at the age of nine and later majored in accounting at Queensland University, where she recorded a video sharing her experience with Chinese students, saying that Australian Education “doesn’t teach you how to follow instructions, but gives you the freedom to think for yourself.
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