American citizen Mark Swidan has been unlawfully imprisoned in Communist China for close to ten years.  What started out as a business trip in late 2012, turned into a nightmare for the Swidan family when he was unlawfully detained by police on November 12, 2012. On this podcast, GLA President Jason Poblete speaks with Mr. Swidan's mom, Mr. Katherine Swidan.

Without probable cause, the Chinese police stormed Mark's hotel room in Dongguan Municipality, Guangdong Province. The police claimed that they had found drugs on his driver and translator.  All were taken into custody.  No drugs were found on Mr. Swidan or in his room, but the driver and translator blamed Mark.  The Chinese police also took him into custody on suspicion of trafficking and manufacturing methamphetamine.  You can learn more about the case at the California-based Dui Hua foundation website.

Sentenced to death by the Chinese kangaroo court system, on February 5, 2020, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) has concluded that Mr. Swidan has been arbitrarily detained by the Chinese authorities in violation of international law. WGAD has urged his immediate release with compensation and other reparations.  Inexplicably, the U.S. government has failed to raise the profile of this case with Chinese officials. There was a unique opportunity to do so before the Beijing Olympics, yet nothing happened.  Mark is not the only American unlawfully detained in the Chinese gulag prison system.

Further Reading

• Mark Swidan's Go Fund Me page
• Texas businessman in slave labor in China's 'black box' jail system for past nine years, The Washington Examiner (Feb. 17, 2022).

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