Two men accused by the United States of attempting to smuggle military technology to China and harassing a Chinese-American artist have escaped house arrest in Serbia, the Balkan service of Radio Liberty reported on 16 September.
British citizen John Miller and Chinese citizen Cui Guanhai were awaiting extradition, so far their whereabouts are unknown. When exactly they escaped from house arrest is unclear.
On 9 September, the Belgrade Supreme Court said that an arrest warrant for the men had been issued as early as 15 August. Subsequently, on 12 September, the court stated that the men were wanted on an international Interpol warrant and their search was still ongoing.
The fugitives are accused of arms smuggling and intimidating Hui Bo, a dissident artist who criticised Chinese leader Xi Jinping when he was in the United States for the 2023 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit.
“I was shocked and outraged when I learnt that Kui Guanghai and John Miller had disappeared from house arrest in Belgrade,” Hui, who now lives in Los Angeles, told Radio Liberty.
He added that their flight “underscores the serious risks” to his personal safety.
Miller and Tsui were arrested in Belgrade in April at the request of the FBI while on a business trip, and released under house arrest in May.
U.S. court documents released with the indictment say Miller was caught in an operation by FBI agents. The operative posed as an arms dealer whom the men approached about buying US defence equipment including surface-to-air missiles, air defence radars, drones and cryptographic devices for illegal export to China.
Miller allegedly told an undercover agent that the equipment would be copied in China and that Beijing would pay two to three times as much for it.
The two men have been charged in the United States with interstate stalking, conspiracy to commit interstate stalking, smuggling and violations of the Arms Export Control Act. Together, the charges carry penalties of up to 40 years in prison.
It is not known whether they are still in Serbia and whether U.S. officials have coordinated the future extradition of the two men with their Serbian counterparts.
The U.S. State Department declined to answer questions from Radio Liberty about the two men’s escape from house arrest.
US authorities have not explicitly alleged that Miller and Cui were working at the behest of the Chinese government to smuggle and harass, and the US Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California has previously said the indictment is “mere speculation”.
“All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law,” the office said when the indictment was released in April.
At the same time, the indictment also contains phone calls and recordings with Miller and Cui. Hui confirmed some of the details of the indictment in a conversation with Radio Liberty.
The court documents also say Miller and Cui organised the harassment and intimidation of Hui, first on the sidelines of the APEC 2023 summit in San Francisco and then again earlier this year. At the same time, the people they enlisted to obstruct the artist’s protest were acting at the behest of the FBI.
“In the weeks before the ATES summit, Cui and Miller directed and coordinated an Interstate plan to track the victim, install tracking devices on his vehicle, puncture the vehicle’s tyres, and acquire and destroy artistic statues created by the victim depicting President Xi Jinping and his wife,” the indictment said.
Hui told Radio Liberty that in 2023, he learnt that the FBI was monitoring the two men and was told of plans to destroy his sculptures and attack him. The bureau organised for the artist to move to safe housing