Wife of ex-Interpol Chief Seeks Asylum in France, Reuters Says
Wife of ex-Interpol Chief Seeks Asylum in France, Reuters Says
(Bloomberg) -- The wife of missing former Interpol Chief Meng Hongwei has applied for asylum in France because she is scared for her life, Reuters reported Saturday, citing her lawyer.
Grace Meng was followed by strangers, received suspicious phone calls and had her car license plates photographed by mysterious people, according to the report, which cited an interview she did with France Info’s radio station on Friday. Meng has been under police protection since shortly after her husband went missing in September, her lawyer Emmanuel Marsigny told Reuters.
French authorities declined to comment on the asylum request, according to Reuters. Calls to the Chinese embassy in Paris went unanswered outside of office hours and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately reply to an email.
Meng Hongwei was being investigated for suspicion of allegedly accepting bribes and violating other state laws in China, according to the Chinese Ministry of Public Security last year. The ministry announcement in October followed mystery surrounding Meng’s whereabouts more than a week after he left France for China.
To contact the reporter on this story: Soraya Permatasari in Melbourne at soraya@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Niluksi Koswanage at nkoswanage@bloomberg.net, John McCluskey, Stanley James
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