A US fugitive accused of raping his daughter and posting videos of the abuse online lived openly in China, even enjoying visits from his wife and registering at a local fitness club under his own name.
US court documents show that Kenneth John Freeman's wife, Maleka May, visited him in China more than once during his time as a fugitive.
May was detained in San Francisco on Thursday as she got off a plane from China. She denied having any contact with Freeman during his year on the run.
Information provided by the Powerhouse Gym also provided some clues about Freeman's several months spent living in Suzhou, where he was apparently employed as a computer expert.
Gym members said Freeman worked out almost every day and seemed friendly.
"He was the biggest guy in there. We figured he was some famous bodybuilder who had come to China to work," said Tom Stern of Berkley, California, a gym regular.
Freeman had been living in Seattle when he fled the US last year, months after his 17-year-old daughter told her mother he had assaulted her four years earlier. Video of the abuse is among the most widely downloaded child pornography in recent years.
Freeman, one of the US' most wanted men, was captured on Tuesday while trying to enter Hong Kong from China using his own passport.
He has been charged in Washington state with three counts of rape of a child and jumping bail. He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted.
Freeman also faces federal charges on suspicion of producing and distributing child pornography.
Hong Kong police said Freeman, 44, worked as a computer specialist for a US company in Suzhou, a hub of high-tech manufacturing about a two-hour drive from Shanghai.
Stern and other members of the gym described Freeman as serious about working out, saying he often partnered another US man whose identity was not immediately known.
However, Freeman was not a regular at any of the bars and restaurants where most foreigners gathered, they said.
May, 37, who married Freeman in Las Vegas about nine months before he was charged, had posted Freeman's US$50,000 bond, the Seattle Post Intelligencer said.
She was arrested on Thursday for making false statements to federal agents, the Department of Justice's northern California office said in a statement posted on its Web site.
Reports said Chinese police had tipped off their counterparts in Hong Kong, which unlike mainland China, has an extradition treaty with the US.
On Friday, Freeman said he wanted to contest the extradition request, his lawyer, Stephen Ma, said.
The case has been adjourned until July 3.
LANDMARK CASE: ‘Every night we were dragged to US soldiers and sexually abused. Every week we were forced to undergo venereal disease tests,’ a victim said More than 100 South Korean women who were forced to work as prostitutes for US soldiers stationed in the country have filed a landmark lawsuit accusing Washington of abuse, their lawyers said yesterday. Historians and activists say tens of thousands of South Korean women worked for state-sanctioned brothels from the 1950s to 1980s, serving US troops stationed in country to protect the South from North Korea. In 2022, South Korea’s top court ruled that the government had illegally “established, managed and operated” such brothels for the US military, ordering it to pay about 120 plaintiffs compensation. Last week, 117 victims
China on Monday announced its first ever sanctions against an individual Japanese lawmaker, targeting China-born Hei Seki for “spreading fallacies” on issues such as Taiwan, Hong Kong and disputed islands, prompting a protest from Tokyo. Beijing has an ongoing spat with Tokyo over islands in the East China Sea claimed by both countries, and considers foreign criticism on sensitive political topics to be acts of interference. Seki, a naturalised Japanese citizen, “spread false information, colluded with Japanese anti-China forces, and wantonly attacked and smeared China”, foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian told reporters on Monday. “For his own selfish interests, (Seki)
Argentine President Javier Milei on Sunday vowed to “accelerate” his libertarian reforms after a crushing defeat in Buenos Aires provincial elections. The 54-year-old economist has slashed public spending, dismissed tens of thousands of public employees and led a major deregulation drive since taking office in December 2023. He acknowledged his party’s “clear defeat” by the center-left Peronist movement in the elections to the legislature of Buenos Aires province, the country’s economic powerhouse. A deflated-sounding Milei admitted to unspecified “mistakes” which he vowed to “correct,” but said he would not be swayed “one millimeter” from his reform agenda. “We will deepen and accelerate it,” he
Japan yesterday heralded the coming-of-age of Japanese Prince Hisahito with an elaborate ceremony at the Imperial Palace, where a succession crisis is brewing. The nephew of Japanese Emperor Naruhito, Hisahito received a black silk-and-lacquer crown at the ceremony, which marks the beginning of his royal adult life. “Thank you very much for bestowing the crown today at the coming-of-age ceremony,” Hisahito said. “I will fulfill my duties, being aware of my responsibilities as an adult member of the imperial family.” Although the emperor has a daughter — Princess Aiko — the 23-year-old has been sidelined by the royal family’s male-only
RSS