Canberra: China has formally arrested a Chinese-born Australian journalist of CGTN, the English-language channel of China Central Television, on suspicion of illegally supplying state secrets overseas, Australia’s foreign minister said on Monday.
The arrest of Cheng Lei last Friday starts an official criminal investigation and came six months after she was detained.
“The Australian government has raised its serious concerns about Ms Cheng’s detention regularly at senior levels, including about her welfare and conditions of detention,” Foreign Minister Marise Payne said.
“We expect basic standards of justice, procedural fairness and humane treatment to be met, following international norms,” she added.
China’s Foreign Ministry confirmed Cheng’s arrest and said her legal rights were being “fully guaranteed.”
“We hope that Australia will earnestly respect China’s judicial sovereignty and refrain from interfering in China’s law-based handling of cases in any way,” ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said at a daily briefing.
Read:|Australia asks Myanmar to release detained adviser
The British media watchdog Ofcom last week stripped CGTN of its U.K. broadcasting license because of a lack of editorial control and is investigating complaints that it ran forced confessions by suspects involved in political cases.
Worsening bilateral relations since Australia called for an independent investigation into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic are suspected to be the cause of Cheng’s arrest.
Cheng’s two children, aged 9 and 11, are living with their grandmother in Melbourne, Australia, the journalist’s niece, Louisa Wen, said.
“I feel like the children don’t fully understand the situation, so it’s probably quite tough on the kids wondering what’s going on,” Wen said. “Every time we do something fun, we’re thinking of her and how she can’t enjoy these things with us.”