Frenchman in Bo Xilai case in ‘good shape’, says embassy
Devillers has his passport checked by an immigration official at Phonm Penh International Airport July 17, 2012, in this handout photograph obtained from the Phnom Penh police. — Reuters file picBEIJING, July 26 — A Frenchman at the heart of China’s biggest political scandal in two decades has met French diplomats in Beijing and is “in good shape”, a spokesman for the French embassy said.
Patrick Henri Devillers, 52, flew from Cambodia, where he had been living for several years, last week to China, where he is wanted as a witness in the case, the latest twist in a high-profile case already shrouded in mystery.
Devillers was detained last month in Cambodia at the behest of Beijing because of his suspected business links to the wife of deposed Chinese politician Bo Xilai, Cambodian authorities have said.
Cambodia said Devillers, an architect, had left of his own free will.
The embassy spokesman in Beijing, who declined to be named, told Reuters by telephone that Devillers had met two French diplomats on Saturday.
“He seems in good shape and had a good morale,” he said. “So far as my colleagues could see, he seemed quite fine.
“We are in regular contact with him, and we are also in contact with the Chinese authorities on this subject, both in Beijing and in Paris,” he said.
It is unclear why Devillers would voluntarily cooperate with China, a country run by a single political party with no independent judiciary. — Reuters
