Two people wanted by the US escape from house arrest in Serbia
Chinese citizen Cui Guanghaj and British citizen John Miller, whose extradition is sought by the United States on charges of espionage and smuggling military technology, have escaped from house arrest in Belgrade and removed their electronic bracelets, the Belgrade Supreme Court confirmed to Radio Free Europe on Tuesday.
The Supreme Court has ordered the issuance of arrest warrants for these two people.
They were arrested in April in Belgrade on an international arrest warrant, at the request of the US.
At the time, the US Department of Justice announced that the Chinese and British nationals are suspected of having "coordinated and directed a conspiracy to intimidate and threaten a Los Angeles resident who had publicly criticized Chinese President Xi Jinping."
"Cui and Miller engaged two individuals in the United States to carry out the conspiracy, with the intent of preventing the victim from protesting President Xi's appearance at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation [APEC] summit in November 2023," the Justice Department said in a statement.
It also said that Cui and Miller are suspected of carrying out a similar plan in the spring of 2025, "after the victim said he planned to publish a video online, which featured two new artistic statues of President Xi and his wife."
The statement said Cui and Miller paid "two other individuals approximately $36.500 to persuade the victim to stop posting the statues online. Unbeknownst to Cui and Miller, those two individuals also had connections to the FBI and were acting on the agency's orders."
As noted, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is investigating this case.
The BIRN investigative network had previously reported that two separate indictments had been filed against these two individuals in the US, one for "organizing persecution and intimidation", and the other for attempting to illegally trade in American military equipment and smuggle it to China.
The extradition agreement between Serbia and the US was ratified by the Serbian Parliament in February 2019. This agreement enables the exchange of fugitives from justice, regardless of citizenship.
