\nBEIJING (AP) \u2013 An American businessman stood trial in China on Monday for allegedly heading a violent mob that kidnapped rivals and operated illegal casinos, charges he\u2019s said he was tortured into confessing.<\/p>\n
\tAuthorities in southern China have accused Vincent Wu of gang crimes but Wu\u2019s family and lawyers say he\u2019s a law-abiding businessman whose rivals have framed him to seize his assets.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cWe are still very confident because our lawyers have all the evidence to prove that he is innocent,\u201d said Wu\u2019s daughter, Anna Wu, by phone from Guangzhou. \u201cWe believe we still have a chance and so we\u2019ll hope for the best.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tWu\u2019s lawyers urged a court in the southern city of Guangzhou to recognize the defendant\u2019s American citizenship as he and more than two dozen associates stood trial.<\/p>\n
\tWu has been denied U.S. consular access since his detention in June 2012 despite being a U.S. passport holder who shuttles between his family in Los Angeles and his business in China.<\/p>\n
\tChina refuses to acknowledge Wu\u2019s American citizenship because his last entry into mainland China was made on his Hong Kong residence pass.<\/p>\n
\tThe case underscores the risks faced by individuals working in China who have travel documents from more than one country because Beijing does not recognize dual nationalities.<\/p>\n
\tTwo U.S. consular officials attended Monday\u2019s hearing and told the court the American government recognized Wu\u2019s U.S. citizenship but judges rejected their assertion, said Wu\u2019s legal adviser, Li Zhuang.<\/p>\n
\tThe Guangzhou Intermediate People\u2019s Court and the U.S. Embassy in Beijing had no immediate comment.<\/p>\n
\tWu, who was seeing his family and friends for the first time since he had been taken away nearly two years ago, appeared emotional, his daughter said. \u201cHe kept saying \u2018I\u2019m an American citizen, you have to give me a fair trial,\u2019\u201d Anna Wu said.<\/p>\n
\tThe case exposes the murky environment in which businesses in China often operate. Widespread corruption allows entrepreneurs to cozy up with police and run roughshod over the law to take down their rivals.<\/p>\n
\tWu is charged with getting an associate to throw acid at a judge who ruled against him in a lawsuit, and with ordering thugs to set fire to sheds owned by farmers who refused his offer of compensation to clear off land he wanted to develop.<\/p>\n
\tWu is also accused of operating illegal casinos that raked in 48 million yuan ($7.8 million) and of attacking or kidnapping people who crossed him in various disputes.<\/p>\n
\tThe businessman has also alleged that he was tortured in detention, telling his lawyers he had been beaten, kicked and strung by his arms from a ceiling beam as police tried to coerce him to sign a confession.<\/p>\n
\tWu left China in the late 1970s as a stowaway to neighboring Hong Kong, where he obtained residency. He moved with his family to the U.S. in 1994, settled in Los Angeles and eventually became a U.S. citizen.<\/p>\n
No replies were posted for this topic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BEIJING (AP) \u2013 An American businessman stood trial in China on Monday for allegedly heading a violent mob that kidnapped rivals and operated illegal casinos, charges he\u2019s said he was tortured into confessing. Authorities in southern China have accused Vincent…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-casino-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6965"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6965\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}