The Chinese government has requested Cambodia to extradite a French architect Henri Patrick Devillers, who linked to former Chinese communist leader Bo Xilai and his family, after the French citizen was arrested in Cambodia.
According to the newspaper “South China Morning Post ” (SCMP), police in Phnom Penh, Cambodian capital, yesterday confirmed the arrest of Devillers, and a spokesman for the Embassy of France in the same city, said the Embassy of France has been informed of the arrest.
The police chief of Phnom Penh, Touch Naruth, said the French citizen was arrested two weeks ago “with the cooperation of China” and “we are considering whether to send him to China or France.”
Devillers’ connection with Bo’s family is still unknown, but foreign media have reported that the architect helped the charismatic politician Bo Xilai rebuild Dalian when the former communist leader was mayor of the city in 1990’s.
Later, in 2000, when Bo’s wife Gu Kailai, established a company in Britain to select European architects for construction projects in China, Devillers was the partner.
In March 2006, the architect and his father formed a company in Luxembourg, which sparked speculation that the company helped Gu or others to take money from China, according to the SCMP.
Interviewed by a newspaper last month, Devillers denied having violated any law.
The former head of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in the municipality of Chongqing (center), Bo Xilai, was expelled from office and suspended from the Politburo and Central Committee of the CPC in April.
At the same time, his wife, Gu Kailai, was arrested on suspicion of murder of British citizen Neil Heywood last November.