The US State Department demanded Mark Swidan’s immediate release and expressed its “disappointment” at the Chinese court‘s decision to uphold the death penalty for an American citizen.
Vedant Patel, the principal deputy spokesperson for the State Department, stated in a statement that “the People’s Republic of China’s Jiangmen Intermediate Court today rejected US citizen Mark Swidan‘s appeal and upheld his death penalty with a two-year suspended death sentence.”
This decision has disappointed us, and we will keep pushing for his prompt release and return to the United States, Patel added.
Swidan, a businessman from Texas who was held in China in 2012 on drug-related accusations, has remained there for more than ten years.
He was convicted of manufacturing and trafficking drugs in 2019 by the Jiangmen Intermediate People’s Court in southern Guangdong province and given a death sentence with a two-year reprieve.
Under Chinese law, the reprieve means Swidan’s sentence may be commuted to life imprisonment after two years, subject to his conduct during this period.
A United Nations working group concluded in 2020 that Swidan had been arbitrarily detained in violation of international law and urged his immediate release.
CNN could not reach the Jiangmen Intermediate People’s Court for comment.
His mother, Katherine Swidan, told CNN earlier this year that her son had been detained in what she described as a “holding tank,” where she said he had undergone physical and psychological torture and attempted suicide.
“He’s been in there for 10 years, where they never turn the lights off, so as a result, he’s going blind. He’s got fractures in his leg,” she said, telling CNN that guards at the facility “broke his hands five to seven times.”
“He’s suffering and he’s got an infection. He has severe periodontal disease. He has holes in his mouth that bleed constantly. He’s lost 130 pounds,” Katherine said.
Patel, the State Department spokesperson, said in his statement Thursday American officials had “repeatedly expressed their concerns” to senior Chinese officials about Swidan’s “treatment, medical care, and his inability to send or receive mail in a timely manner.”
US President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken “continue to remain personally focused on the release of Mark Swidan and other US nationals wrongfully detained or held hostage across the world,” Patel added.
Katherine Swidan and family members of other Americans detained by China had urged Blinken to make securing their loved ones’ freedom a top priority before his expected trip to Beijing in February. But the trip was postponed in response to the flying of a suspected Chinese spy balloon over US airspace.
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