Frenchman arrested in Cambodia over ‘Bo Xilai links’

News reports have said that Devillers was closely linked to Bo, Gu and
Heywood. It is not clear if he is accused of any crimes in China or
elsewhere.

Phnom Penh police chief Gen Touch Naruth confirmed Devillers’ arrest but
declined to provide further information.

Calls to the Chinese Foreign Ministry rang unanswered Tuesday night.

Devillers, an architect, had helped Bo rebuild the northeastern Chinese city
of Dalian when Bo was the city’s mayor in the 1990s, The New York Times
reported last month.

The Frenchman and Gu were partners in setting up a company in Britain in 2000
to select European architects for Chinese projects and both gave the same
address of an apartment in the English city of Bournemouth, the newspaper
said.

It cited an unidentified friend of Devillers as saying the architect left
China in 2005 and has been living in Cambodia more or less continuously for
about six years.

Eric Bosc, deputy to the French Foreign Ministry’s spokesman, said Devillers
was arrested June 13 and the French consul has daily visits with him but
that the reason for his arrest remains unclear.

“We have told local authorities that we are attentive that no follow-up
of any kind be engaged without a clearly established judicial basis,”
said Bosc, who deals with French in difficulty around the world. “We
have asked Cambodian authorities for clarification about the motives of his
arrest.” Speaking by phone, he made no link to China, saying that only “he
is detained by a sovereign country.”

China has considerable influence in Cambodia, having provided millions of
dollars in aid over the past decade.

In 2009, Cambodia deported 20 members of the Uighur ethnic minority group who
said they were fleeing ethnic violence in China’s far west and wanted
asylum.

Source: agencies

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