Lawyers say gambling tycoon was abused in Thai prison after saying he spied for China By Reuters

Written by Bobby McPherson and Banu Wongcha Om

BANGKOK (Reuters) – A jailed gambling tycoon opposing his extradition to China received “inhumane treatment” in a Thai prison after claiming to be a Chinese spy, his lawyers told Interpol, saying they feared for his life.

Xi Zhijiang, who was born in China and has Cambodian citizenship, suffered violence that left him unable to stand and received unwanted visits from Chinese officials, the lawyers said in a letter to Interpol, seen by Reuters.

The Bangkok businessman was arrested in 2022 on the basis of an international warrant and an Interpol Red Notice requested by Beijing, which accuses him of running illegal online gambling operations in Southeast Asia. She and his lawyers said the case was politically motivated.

In their letter to Interpol, dated January 9, and seen by Reuters, the lawyers said he was held in solitary confinement and shackled, denied medical treatment for a spinal injury, and denied contact with his family.

Lawyers Clara Gérard Rodriguez and Pierre-Olivier Sur of France-based FTMS Avocats wrote that the businessman was subjected to “particularly inhumane treatment” and human rights violations of an “institutional nature.”

The lawyers added: “These elements lead us to seriously fear for our client’s life.”

China’s Foreign Ministry told Reuters in a statement that she is a Chinese national and “a key figure in online gambling and telecommunications fraud crimes,” saying the evidence against him was “conclusive.”

She welcomed the decision taken by the Thai courts to extradite him, and described the move as an important achievement in Thai-Chinese law enforcement cooperation. Her lawyers are appealing the extradition ruling.

The Thai Ministry of Justice declined to comment and referred questions to the Prisons Department, which did not immediately respond.

An Interpol spokesman said that the Red Notice issued by Interpol must comply with the organization’s rules, “according to which any activity of a political, military, religious or racist nature is strictly prohibited,” declining to comment further.

Trafficking gangs

She said last year that his arrest came after he refused to obey the orders of the Chinese authorities, who said they had ordered him to develop a town on the Thai-Myanmar border.

“They wanted a colony,” she told Al Jazeera in a documentary broadcast on September 26. “I wanted to do business.”

China has intensified pressure on Southeast Asian countries to crack down on Chinese-origin gambling and fraud rings since the kidnapping and cross-border rescue of a Chinese actor this month sparked a firestorm on social media.

In recent years the area has become a magnet for gambling operations, some of which involve fraud and human trafficking by criminal gangs, many of Chinese origin.

Days after the Al Jazeera documentary aired, she was transferred to a high-security prison in Bangkok where people serving long sentences and on death row are held, her lawyers said.

In late October, lawyers said “she was brutalized” by officers and prisoners who accused him of violating discipline. They said he was unable to walk or stand, and now uses a wheelchair. The incident was also described in a police report seen by Reuters.

The lawyers said that Chinese embassy officials visited her twice in December in prison against his will, seeking to persuade him to return to China. They said that at one meeting, officials suggested that his family and friends might need help from the embassy, ​​which he interpreted as a threat.

Gambling empire

Her lawyers are seeking to cancel the Interpol Red Notice seeking his extradition.

“China’s flagrant due process violations and gross human rights violations undermine international judicial cooperation and should in themselves constitute an obstacle to extradition,” Gerard Rodriguez told Reuters.

Reuters was unable to independently verify these allegations.

At the time of his arrest, she headed a gambling empire that developed a $15 billion casino, entertainment and tourism complex called Shwe Koko on the Myanmar-Thai border. The group, Yatai International Holdings Group, also had investments in Cambodia and the Philippines.

The company denied involvement in any criminal activities, including human trafficking.

The businessman told Al Jazeera that he was recruited in the Philippines by the Chinese Ministry of State Security, the main agency that oversees foreign intelligence, in exchange for dropping a criminal case against him.

The Chinese Ministry of State Security could not be reached for comment.

She said he worked with former Philippine Mayor Alice Gu, also known as Chinese national Gu Huaping. She was removed from her position for misconduct and was investigated by the Philippine Senate last year for possible ties to offshore gambling operations targeting Chinese customers.

Guo, who faces charges of graft and money laundering, has denied being a Chinese spy and dismissed other accusations as malicious.