The ACLU can’t come to the rescue in a foreign country.
The mother of an American college student arrested in central China following an altercation with a taxi driver five weeks earlier said police are demanding the equivalent of a $7,400 “ransom” for his release.
Jennifer McLean has not been allowed to see or communicate with her 25-year-old son, Guthrie, since his Sunday arrest on charges of intentional injury to the taxi driver, she said Thursday in an email to The Associated Press.
During a June 10 fare dispute in the city of Zhengzhou, Guthrie McLean pushed the driver to the ground because the driver was roughing up his mother, who is hearing impaired, according to family friend Tom Mitchell, the Beijing bureau chief for The Financial Times, and U.S. officials.
It’s unclear why McLean, 25, a senior majoring in East Asian studies at the University of Montana, was not arrested until weeks later. The Zhengzhou municipal public security bureau, when contacted by The AP, said it does not take inquiries about individual cases.
Jennifer McLean told The AP her son’s actions were justified because the taxi driver was hurting her.
“He would not have ceased had my son not intervened,” she said.
Offices from the U.S. Consulate in the provincial capital of Wuhan spoke with McLean Thursday at the Zhenghou #3 Detention Center. He reported no physical or mental health concerns, officials said.
“Fine is a bit of an overstatement. He is enduring,” Jennifer McLean said.
Montana’s U.S. senators, Democrat Jon Tester and Republican Steve Daines, called for Guthrie McLean’s quick release and said they were pressing the matter with U.S. Ambassador Terry Branstad in Beijing.
Daines said he also spoke with China’s ambassador to the U.S., Cui Tiankai, who pledged to relay the concerns over McLean’s fate to the communist nation’s leadership.