SAN ANTONIO – Three American citizens, among one of them a Houston man, arrived in San Antonio after years of imprisonment in China on Wednesday night.
The three men arrived at the JBSA-Lackland around 10:30 p.m.
Mark Swidan, Kai Li, and John Leung were all designated by the U.S. government as wrongfully detained by China. Swidan, a Houston resident, had been facing a death sentence on drug charges while Li and Leung were imprisoned on espionage charges, according to the Associated Press.
U.S. Senator John Cornyn released the following statement on Wednesday:
“After 12 long years of unjust imprisonment, Houstonian Mark Swidan is finally free. Mark has suffered unimaginable conditions and treatment after being wrongfully detained at the hands of the Chinese Communist Party, which has proven time and time again that it has zero regard for human rights, truth, or justice. I join all Americans in celebrating his long-awaited return home, and I urge the State Department to continue working to secure Texan Austin Tice’s release.”
The conditions of Swidan, Li, and Leung are unknown at this time.
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Houston man among 3 Americans held for years to be released from China, the White House says