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Chinese prosecutor charged in alleged plot to intimidate citizens to return to China

23 July 2021 00:30 (UTC +04:00)

The U.S. Justice Department on Thursday accused a prosecutor employed by the Chinese government of traveling to the United States to direct a harassment campaign aimed at bullying Chinese residents to return home to face criminal charges, APA reports quoting Reuters.

Tu Lan, 50, who served as a prosecutor with the Hanyang People’s Procuratorate, is the latest defendant in a sprawling investigation that has led to charges against nine people accused of participating in a covert operation to conduct surveillance on, harass, stalk and coerce Chinese people living in the United States to return to China through a repatriation effort known as "Operation Fox Hunt."

Tu Lan and another defendant, Zhai Yongqiang, 46, are the latest to be charged in a superseding indictment returned by a federal grand jury in New York. Lan is also accused of ordering another co-conspirator to destroy evidence and obstruct the investigation.