Britain to deport Chinese man who could face execution in China: report

LONDON, Saturday, (AFP)

A 51-year-old Chinese man who fled his country in August 1999 faces imminent deportation to China from Britain even though he claims he will be executed, The Daily Telegraph reported Saturday.

Wenqi Yang claims he worked for China's domestic intelligence organization in Shanghai and fled after he refused to follow government guidelines that followers of the Falun Gong sect should be persecuted, the newspaper said.

It said he has a copy of a warrant for his arrest issued in Shanghai that reads: "Wen Qi Yang was involved in activities endangering the national security of China. Agents have full authority to arrest or execute him immediately."

Britain's Home Office, which is responsible for law enforcement and immigration, rejected the document, claiming it was an internal communication and that there was no evidence to back it.

But Wenqi Yang, who left his wife and daughter behind in China, said they made no efforts to check it or the photographic evidence he presented to them, the daily said.

The Daily Telegraph said a sympathetic officer at Campsfield House, Kidlington, northwest of London, where he was sent on August 10, made public the Chinese man's pleas for clemency.

"The (British) government should try and check his case seriously. He might be executed. We can save an innocent life if his story is true," the officer said, according to the Daily Telegraph.

The Home Office first rejected his request for political asylum in 2001, and then rejected his appeal in 2004, it said. He is now at the detention center at Harmondsworth, near London's Heathrow Airport.