(TibetanReview.net, Jan07’21) – A New York City police officer arrested for being an agent of China over the Tibetan community and other criminal violations has been offered a plea deal that would carry a prison sentence ranging from the time served to 10 years, reported newsday.com Jan 6. The defence attorney of Baimadajie Angwang, 33, who is also a Marine Corps veteran, has said the plea agreement does not deal with the question whether or not he would lose his citizenship if he accepts the plea.
Angwang, who had come from Tibet or China on a visitor visa, had overstayed his visa and sought asylum, claiming political persecution by China. But after getting the US asylum, he regularly visited China, had remained in regular contact with the local Chinese Consulate in connection with his covert role as its agent over the Tibetan community.
The plea deal proposal requires that Angwang to admit to a single count of violating the foreign agents registration act. This emerged during a telephonic status conference Jan 6 in the federal court in Brooklyn, the report said.
Angwang, a naturalized United States citizen who had been suspended from the 111th Precinct in Bayside, was charged in Sep 2020 with four felonies: acting as an agent of a foreign government without notifying the United States government, wire fraud, making false statements, and obstruction of an official proceedings, the report noted.
He would face decades of imprisonment if convicted on those charges.
The charges were reported to involve Angwang informing on activities of Tibetans in the United States who opposed the Chinese government policies and activities in their occupied homeland or who might be potential recruits for the Chinese government.
Assistant United States Attorney Scott Claffee was reported to have briefly mentioned that the government had offered the plea deal to Angwang during the status conference.
Carman has also said he may make another attempt to have his client released on bond, among other things, increasing a new bond package greater than the $1 million previously proposed.
The report noted that both the judge overseeing the case, Eric Komitee, and a federal appeals court had denied Angwang bail on the grounds he remained a flight risk.
The judge has said he would review a new bail request, and he understood that conditions at the jail were “draconian,” but they “may be required” to deal with the epidemic.
