The police said that a former British soldier charged with spying for the Hong Kong intelligence service was dead. The body of a man named Matthew Trickett was discovered in Maidenhead, a town to the west of London, on Sunday. This happened after he and two other men were accused last week under Britain’s National Security Act of assisting Hong Kong’s secret service and their case is expected to return to court this Friday.
Hong Kong is a former British colony and now a special administrative region of China. So far this year, the relationship between London and Beijing has been strained as Britain has become more vocal about accusations against China. After last week’s charges were made public, Britain rebuked the Chinese ambassador.
The deceased was also director of his own private security company who had at 37 served as both an immigration enforcement officer within UK borders and a former royal marine.
A member of public called police after seeing something strange at Grenfell Park according to police reports. Trickett who hailed from that area was found by those who searched for him but despite efforts by paramedics pronounced him dead on that site. “Investigations into the death are ongoing which is currently being treated as unexplained” noted officers (nyt).
China releases journalist jailed over Covid
According to her video statement released on Tuesday, Zhang Zhan, an ordinary citizen journalist has been set free after spending four years in prison for writing about Covid-19 outbreak in Wuhan City China although there are concerns about how much freedom she has now that she is no longer behind bars eight days after her sentence ended. She was given various sentences for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” which is one among many broadly worded crimes applied against political cases during her entire imprisonment period. Zhang told viewers in one short film clip uploaded onto YouTube that she had been taken home by police on May 13th , the day she completed her jail term. In a soft voice, she is heard saying “I want to thank everyone for their help and concern” (AP).
