BEIJING (Reuters) – An Australian journalist who has been detained in China for more than 19 months will be tried next Thursday, ABC News reported on Friday, citing two sources close to the case.
Cheng Lei, who worked as a television anchor for Chinese state media’s English-language channel CGTN, will be tried in the Beijing No. 2 People’s Intermediate Court at 9am local time, it reported.
Cheng Lei was formally arrested last year February on suspicion of illegally supplying state secrets overseas. She has been detained since August 2020.
Her children, aged nine and 11, were visiting their grandmother in Australia during school closures in Beijing caused by the COVID-19 pandemic when she was detained.
ABC News said it was unlikely Australian diplomats will be permitted to observe the trial scheduled for next week.
(Reporting by Eduardo Baptista and Kirsty Needham; editing by Philippa Fletcher)
