2024-04-24 22:27:00
On April 24, 2024, Chinese international student Wu Xiaolei (right) and his attorney left federal court in Boston. A federal court judge sentenced Wu Xiaolei to nine months in prison for threatening and harassing pro-democracy activists, followed by three years of supervised release, and then was deported. Wu Xiaolei will report to prison on June 7. (Liu Jingye/Epoch Times)
[The Epoch Times, 25 avril 2024](Reported by Epoch Times reporters Liu Jingye and Lin Yan in Boston) Xiaolei Wu, a Chinese student at Berklee College of Music, was arrested on Wednesday (April 24) for threatening and harassing Chinese people. students from the same school who support democracy. ) was sentenced in Boston to nine months in prison, three years of supervised release, then deportation.
Boston Federal Court Judge Denise Casper announced Wednesday the decision in the case of Wu Xiaolei, accused of threatening Democrats. Wu Xiaolei will report to prison on June 7. After serving his sentence, he will be deported and will not be allowed to return to the United States without special approval from the Department of Homeland Security.
On January 25, the jury found Wu Xiaolei guilty of two counts of “cyberstalking” and “interstate dissemination of threatening information.”
The sentence was lower than the recommendation of prosecutors, who recommended a sentence of 33 months in prison and three years of supervised release. But at the same time, the verdict was higher than the request of the defendant’s lawyer, who demanded his release and then his departure.
The judge said that although Wu Xiaolei’s crime occurred within a limited period of two days, its goal was to prevent the victim from expressing her voice for democracy. At the same time, Wu Xiaolei also harassed the victim and encouraged other people to harass her.
Wu Xiaolei arrived in the United States on a student visa. After his arrest, the court confiscated his passport. He complied with his bail conditions and did not contact the victim directly or indirectly.
The judge said the sentence was based on Wu Xiaolei’s behavior and the importance of the sentence to protect more Chinese students and citizens in the United States from bullying.
Wu Xiaolei, 25, was a student at Berklee College of Music and was arrested by the FBI on December 14, 2022.
Zoey, a Chinese international student, posted flyers near the school in October 2022, saying “Be with the Chinese people”, “We want freedom”, “We want democracy”, etc. After Wu Xiaolei learned regarding it, he threatened his classmate several times on the Internet.
Wu Xiaolei posted a message on the WeChat group of Chinese students and alumni of Berklee College of Music, asking Zoey to tear up the flyer and saying that he had reported her to the Party’s public security agency Chinese communist.
On October 22, 2022, Wu Xiaolei threatened to cut off Zoey’s hands in a WeChat group and threatened to report her so-called “reactionary poster” to the CCP.
At that time, some group members agreed, but some also called for a private resolution. Zoey said these comments made her extremely scared and worried regarding her family in China. She mightn’t sleep for two days.
Later, Zoey saw the email Wu Xiaolei sent to her, mentioning that she would report her to the Chinese Communist Party Public Security, and also disclosed her school email and residential address. Zoey thought Wu wanted to continue harassing her and encouraged others to join in. She reported it to the school and demanded action.
The school then issued a no-contact order requiring both parties to refrain from contacting each other while the school investigates. The school later suspended Wu Xiaolei for a year.
Zoey testified in court that she felt extremely frightened by Wu’s threats and moved away from her original address.
The prosecutor demanded a heavy sentence, accusing Wu Ganzhong of being a pawn of the CCP’s censorship and repression.
At Wednesday’s sentencing hearing, prosecutors said Wu Xiaolei’s crimes were serious and that he used the authoritarian nature of the Chinese government as a weapon to harass and threaten his victims.
Prosecutors said Chinese authorities repeatedly visited Zoey’s father in China to harass her, just as Zoey feared.
According to the prosecutor, while Wu Xiaolei’s specific actions may not have been undertaken at the direction of Chinese communist authorities, “he nonetheless identified himself as part of China’s network of censorship and repression ( of the Chinese Communist Party)” which has deep roots in the United States. States and deep in the country. The relational network between Chinese Americans and their families in mainland China.
Prosecutors said Wu Xiaolei showed a clear lack of remorse and suggested the verdict in the case would require “strong and universal deterrence.”
On the day he was found guilty in January, Wu Xiaolei seemed unfazed by the verdict. As he left the courthouse, he gave journalists the finger.
The prosecutor said there were several reasonable reasons to request that Wu Xiaolei be sentenced to 33 months in prison. The first is his rhetoric itself. The rhetoric was violent, involving death threats and even words like “cut off your hands.”
Prosecutors said these were not expressions created in the heat of the moment, but carefully crafted to instill fear in the victims.
Second, the defendants threatened and harassed Zoey not only because they opposed her democracy, freedom, and views on China. Wu Xiaolei wanted her to shut up and at the same time make sure that people like Zoey were afraid to speak out.
Third, as part of an effort to silence Ms. Zoey, Wu Xiaolei threatened to report her behavior to the Chinese government.
In a series of messages on October 23, 2022, Wu Xiaolei said: “I called the national whistleblower hotline and the public security department will visit your family.
Prosecutors said the defendants not only made threats, but also threatened the victims from the Chinese government. Its goal is to make victims so fearful that they no longer dare to raise objections once morest the Chinese communist government.
Report to my mother who is a civil servant in China to list my classmates as key figures
On October 24, 2022, two hours following Berklee College of Music police issued a no-contact order, Wu Xiaolei reported Zoey’s behavior to her mother.
His mother is a Chinese government official. The call lasted regarding 14 minutes, and he then sent her a screenshot of Zoey’s WeChat ID. His mother replied: “Evidence is needed to prove the harm caused to the country. » Wu then provided screenshots of Zoey’s social media posts, including flyers and other content critical of the Chinese government.
In a phone call with his girlfriend, he said: “I ended the call with my mother. Now my family wants me to collect evidence. Let her go through Chinese customs (Chinese Communist Party) first, and then my family will find someone to report to the Ministry of National Security, and she will be arrested and listed as key persons of concern.
According to Zoey, in March 2023, a deputy of the National People’s Congress told her father that Zoey was responsible for Wu Xiaolei’s arrest. After the official’s visit, her father persuaded her to drop the charges.
The same month, two other people from Beijing asked him to “downplay the outcome of the trial[de Wu Xiaolei]”. Then, in May, another Chinese government official came to persuade Zoey’s father to drop the case on behalf of Wu Xiaolei’s father. Zoey’s father told her that he thought Zoey’s continued involvement in the affair might put him in danger.
Prosecutors said Zoey did not feel it was safe to return to China because of the case and the defendant’s actions.
Defendants’ lawyers attempt to use cultural conflict to reduce sentence
Wu Xiaolei’s lawyer, Michael Tumposky, argued that he should not be punished more harshly because he did not plead guilty.
Tumpolsky described Wu Xiaolei as a young man who loved jazz and worked hard to get into his dream school, but his future was ruined because of two days of “immature” behavior.
The lawyers sought to frame the problem as being related to Wu Xiaolei’s “culture clash between his highly sheltered upbringing in communist China and the democratic norms of the United States.”
Wu Xiaolei himself read a statement in court and apologized several times.
“I regret it every day,” he said. “I have to take responsibility and learn from what I did. The first step is to say ‘I’m sorry’.”
Tumpolski and Wu told The Epoch Times they had “no comment” to make as they left court.
Editor-in-chief: Sun Yun#
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