The wife of former Interpol president Meng Hongwei said Monday France has granted asylum requests for both her and her two young boys, The South China Morning Post reported.
The decision, the report said, delivered last week, grants refugee status to Grace Meng, her legal team said.
The asylum office did not respond to requests for comment by phone and email and the French Interior Ministry said it does not comment on individual cases, the Post reported.
Grace Meng said now that her asylum request has been approved and she has the guarantee of being able to remain in France, where her husband was stationed with Interpol, her family has greater security while she pursues further information about her husband’s whereabouts and if he’s even alive, the newspaper said.
While she believes her husband is being held on political reasons, the Post reported, she said “If France hadn’t protected me, I would have been killed ages ago. It’s a second life for us, me and my children.”
Last September, Grace Meng said, she received her last communication with her husband – an emoji of a knife he texted her from China soon before he disappeared on a trip to Beijing, the newspaper reported. Chinese authorities subsequently announced Meng Hongwei was in detention, accused of corruption.
As a result of his incarceration, he was expelled from the ruling Communist Party and from his office as vice-minister of public security, a title he retained after his 2016 election to the presidency of Interpol, the international police liaison organisation headquartered in Lyon, France, the report said.
Grace Meng claims her husband is a victim of political persecution in China, the Post reported. There are suspicions he fell out of favour with Chinese President Xi Jinping, who has carried out an encompassing crackdown on corruption and perceived disloyalty observers say is his way of strengthening party control while bringing down potential challengers to his authority.
Last week, Chinese prosecutors indicted Meng Hongwei on charges of accepting bribes, accusing him of abusing his positions to “illegally accept cash and property in return for performing favours for others,” the newspaper reported.
Grace Meng said China has failed to provide any evidence to support the accusations, the report said, saying “This is a political case.”
– WN.com, Jack Durschlag
Photo:
AP / Laurent Cipriani
