Australia: Australian journalist Ms. Cheng Lei has returned home after more than three years of detention in China.
“She was met at the airport by the Foreign Minister Penny Wong,” Australia’s Prime Minister, Mr. Anthony Albanese, stated.
The 48-year-old journalist was working as a business reporter for China’s state-run English-language TV station CGTN when she was arrested on August 13, 2020. Later, Ms. Lei was accused of sharing secrets with another country. Mr. Albanese remarked that she has been reunited with her two children in Melbourne.
“Her return brings an end to a very difficult few years for her family. The government has been seeking this for a long period of time, and her return will be warmly welcomed not just by her family and friends but by all Australians,” Mr. Albanese stated.
The Prime Minister added that he talked to Ms. Lei over the phone earlier in the day. Mr. Albanese said that her case was legally concluded back in China.
Following her arrest in China, Ms. Cheng was kept in solitary confinement without any charges for the initial six months of her detention.
In March 2022, she underwent a secret trial in a Chinese court. Australia’s ambassador to China, Mr. Graham Fletcher, made an unsuccessful attempt to gain access to the court and observe the proceedings.
Ms. Cheng was born in China but moved to Melbourne, Australia, with her family at the age of 10, as her father pursued a PhD program. She went back to China and became part of CGTN in 2012.
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