Denton Record-Chronicle (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 112, No. 052, Ed. 1 Wednesday, September 23, 2015 Page: 3 of 28
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STATE
3A
Denton Record-Chronicle
Wednesday, September 23, 2015
Houston woman arrested in China
By David Warren
Associated Press
DALLAS — Phan Phan-Gil-
lis was visiting China last spring
as part of an American trade del-
egation that included the mayor
pro tern of Houston and others
who were promoting business
opportunities in the nation’s
fourth-largest city.
But after passing through se-
curity at a border checkpoint,
the 55-year-old Texas business-
woman mysteriously disap-
peared from her group.
On Tuesday, her husband
disclosed that she’s been de-
tained by the Chinese govern-
ment for the past six months on
suspicion of spying and stealing
state secrets. Now he’s asking
the president and the State De-
partment to help win her re-
lease.
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LM Otero/AP file photo
Ahmed Mohamed gestures Sept. 17 as he arrives to his fami-
ly’s home in Irving.
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Mohamed withdraws
from high school that
had suspended him
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Jeff Gillis denies the accusa-
tions against his wife, who has
been accused by the Chinese
Foreign Ministry with threaten-
ing China’s national security.
Although she has not been
charged, she was formally ar-
rested over the weekend and
moved to a more secure deten-
tion facility in the southern city
of Nanning, according to her
husband, who said the arrest al-
lows Chinese authorities to con-
tinue their espionage investiga-
tion.
L_
AP
This undated photo provided by Jeff Gillis shows his wife, Phan Phan-Gillis. Chinese author-
ities are investigating Phan-Gillis, an American businesswoman on suspicion of spying and
stealing state secrets, the Foreign Ministry said Tuesday, confirming earlier media reports
that Phan-Gillis, of Houston, was detained earlier this year while traveling in the country.
DALLAS (AP) — The family
of a 14-year-old Muslim student
who got in trouble over a home-
made clock mistaken for a pos-
sible bomb withdrew the boy
Monday from his suburban Dal-
las high school.
Ahmed Mohamed’s father,
Mohamed El-Hassan Mo-
hamed, said he has pulled all of
his children from their Irving
Independent School District
schools. Mohamed said the fam-
ily is still deciding where to send
the children to school.
Ahmed has said he brought
the clock he made to MacArthur
High School in Irving last week
to show a teacher.
Officials say he was arrested
after another teacher saw it and
Ahmed, including from Presi-
dent Barack Obama.
The turmoil surrounding
Ahmed’s case has had a harmful
effect on the teen, Mohamed
said, adding that his son has lost
his appetite and is not sleeping
well.
tion, Simon Tang, a lawyer for
the Gillis family, told the Hous-
ton Chronicle. After that period,
the government has a month to
issue charges or present its case
in court, although it can seek ex-
tensions.
Tang did not return text and
phone messages from The Asso-
ciated Press.
Houston Mayor Pro-Tern Ed
Gonzalez said he and Phan-Gil-
lis were part of a five-member
delegation that spent a week in
China in March, speaking with
Chinese entrepreneurs interest-
ed in the Houston area.
Phan-Gillis was a business
consultant who traveled regu-
larly to China and who also
served as president of the Hous-
ton Shenzhen Sister City Orga-
nization, according to Gonzalez
and Gillis. She often worked as
an intermediary in ventures be-
tween U.S. and Chinese busi-
ness interests.
Gonzalez said members of
the delegation were surprised
when Phan-Gillis did not meet
them after the group passed
through the checkpoint at Ma-
cau, across the Pearl River Delta
from Hong Kong. She later con-
tacted the delegation to say she
was attending to a “personal
matter.”
descent who has lived in Hous-
ton for about 30 years.
Gillis, who until now has not
publicly disclosed his wife’s de-
tention, decided to discuss her
arrest with reporters because
Chinese President Xi Jinping is
visiting the U.S. this week. Gillis
said he hoped the timing of the
publicity would pressure Beijing
and Washington to act.
“If nothing else, at least con-
vey to the Chinese about the idi-
ocy of arresting an American cit-
izen on these politicized charges
of spying and stealing state se-
crets,” he said.
Foreign Ministry spokesman
Hong Lei said the woman was
healthy, but Gillis said his wife
suffers from high blood pressure
and other complications and has
been hospitalized twice during
her incarceration.
Chinese law allows authori-
ties to detain a suspect for up to
six months during an investiga-
“It’s tom the family and
makes us very confused,” Mo-
hamed said.
Numerous schools have of-
fered to enroll Ahmed, his father
said. But Mohamed said he
wants to give his son a breather
before making a decision. He
said his entire family plans to fly
to New York on Wednesday,
where United Nations dignitar-
ies want to meet his son. Then, if
the appropriate visas can be ob-
tained, Mohamed wants to take
his son on a pilgrimage to the
holy city of Mecca in Saudi Ara-
His wife has been visited six
times by American consular offi-
cers since her March 20 arrest,
according to the State Depart-
ment, which said it was closely
monitoring the case.
‘We’ve raised her case with
Chinese government officials on
multiple occasions at a very se-
nior level,” State Department
spokesman Mark Toner said
Tuesday during a media brief-
ing. The White House has also
raised the matter with the Chi-
nese foreign ministry and “not
received what we believe to be
an adequate response.”
Phan-Gillis, known as Sandy
to family and friends, is a Viet-
namese-American of Chinese
“It’s just so bizarre,” Gonzalez
said. “There was nothing out of
the ordinary for a business de-
velopment trip.”
Gillis said he’s researched
cases of more than a dozen for-
eigners detained in China in re-
cent years allegedly for compro-
mising state secrets. In about
half the cases, the suspects were
released within six months, he
said, but the others were held for
years.
became concerned. Ahmed
wasn’t charged, but he was sus-
pended from school for three
days.
bia.
“Ahmed said, ‘I don’t want to
go to MacArthur,’” Ahmed’s fa-
ther told The Dallas Morning
News. “These kids aren’t going
to be happy there.”
News of the arrest sparked
an outpouring of support for
“I ask Allah to bless this time.
After that, we’ll see,” Mohamed
said.
“I’m very frightened,” he said,
“that if we don’t get her out this
week, then her chances are not
very good.”
When they return, a visit to
the White House and a meeting
with Obama is in the works, he
said.
Evacuation
lifted after
house fire
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WAXAHACHIE (AP) - An
evacuation order has been lifted
for a North Texas neighborhood
a day after an explosion
destroyed a house and left a sis-
ter and brother hospitalized.
Atmos Energy on Tuesday
said the company does not be-
lieve it had a system failure in
the blast in Waxahachie.
A company statement says
an inspection for possible natu-
ral gas leaks, following Monday
morning’s explosion, found evi-
dence of third-party damage to a
line near the home.
The injured adults, Adele
Chavez and Jaymie Rodriguez,
were improving Tuesday at
Parkland Memorial Hospital in
Dallas.
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Parks, Scott K. Denton Record-Chronicle (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 112, No. 052, Ed. 1 Wednesday, September 23, 2015, newspaper, September 23, 2015; Denton, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1125045/m1/3/?q=mission+rosario: accessed July 1, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .