Wife of Meng Hongwei, missing ex-Interpol chief, slams ‘political nature’ of his detention in China and rejects corruption claims
- Grace Meng blasted a statement by China’s anti-corruption watchdog, which said Meng Hongwei had spent ‘lavish’ amounts of state funds and abused his power
- Speaking from France, she said the CCDI had made ‘vague, general, uncorroborated statements’ about her husband
The wife of Meng Hongwei, the missing Chinese former head of Interpol, on Thursday dismissed allegations by authorities in China accusing her husband of graft and said his detention was politically motivated.
China will prosecute former Interpol chief Meng for graft after an investigation found he spent “lavish” amounts of state funds, abused his power and refused to follow Communist Party decisions, Beijing’s anti-corruption watchdog said in a statement on Wednesday.
“The press release openly reveals the political nature of Mr Meng’s case, without addressing the issues concerning our family’s fundamental human rights,” Grace Meng said in a statement issued by her lawyers.
Interpol, the global police coordination agency based in France, said last October that Meng Hongwei had resigned as its president, days after his wife reported him missing while he was on a trip to China.
The Communist Party’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) said Meng was suspected of taking bribes and causing serious harm to the party’s image and state interests, adding he should be severely dealt with.
Grace Meng, who has remained in Lyon, France with the couple’s two children, said China had failed to provide any information about Meng’s whereabouts or well-being.
“Instead, the CCDI made vague, general, uncorroborated statements,” she said. “Chinese authorities have not formulated actual charges or adduced the alleged supporting evidence.”
