By Denise Roland
LONDON--A British private investigator freed last week from a
Chinese prison accused officials there of withholding medical care
to extract a written confession from him, shedding new light on an
episode that has highlighted possible risks for foreigners
gathering information in China.
Peter Humphrey was convicted in China last year on charges of
purchasing private information on Chinese citizens in a case
involving a sex tape and allegations of bribery tied to
pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline PLC. In his first interview
since his early release from a 2 1/2 -year prison sentence, he said
he and his American wife, Yu Yingzeng, a business partner at his
investigative firm, didn't bribe anyone or obtain information from
any Chinese government employee.
"Neither of us has ever admitted to guilt as charged," Mr.
Humphrey said in an interview at London's Heathrow airport, after
touching down in the U.K. late Wednesday. "Because of that I was
constantly harassed in prison over signing a thing they called
admission of guilt and a statement of remorse."
Mr. Humphrey said that a confession aired on Chinese television
soon after he was first detained, in which he and Ms. Yu were shown
in handcuffs and orange prison vests, was "heavily cut and pasted
and narrated, and what we said during those interviews was heavily
distorted."
Mr. Humphrey said that he was advised by a "civilian doctor"
that he needed a prostate examination shortly after he was first
detained by Chinese authorities in 2013 but that despite repeated
requests of prison officials "every single week" thereafter, he was
refused. Mr. Humphrey, who is 59 years old, said he was diagnosed
with a prostate tumor on April 28.
"Some staff deliberately obstructed all of my requests for
appropriate medical attention," he said. "These steps were withheld
from me in a deliberate effort to force me to sign a confession of
crimes, both before and after the trial."
An official at Shanghai Qingpu Prison, where Mr. Humphrey was
held, said "his disease was not caused by the detention." He added
that the prison could provide relief but didn't have the ability to
cure Mr. Humphrey. "Every prisoner's medical care is guaranteed in
our prison," the official said.
At a daily news briefing on Thursday, Chinese Foreign Ministry
spokesman Lu Kang said that China didn't mistreat Mr. Humphrey and
that his claims are "not true." "Relevant Chinese authorities
provided [Mr. Humphrey and his wife] with the due rights and
interests," he said, adding that the couple satisfied court
conditions for sentence reductions.
The couple's case highlights the potential legal risks for
foreign companies or businesspeople gathering information in China.
Holding or relaying personal information has long been part of
due-diligence practices. Businesses do background checks on
potential business partners and employees, for example, to help
companies avoid running afoul of corruption legislation such as the
U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. But the Chinese government has
placed greater emphasis in recent years on protecting personal
data.
In their trial last year, prosecutors claimed that the couple
broke Chinese law by illegally purchasing private data for their
investigative firm ChinaWhys Co. and selling the information to
clients that included multinational companies. Mr. Humphrey and Ms.
Yu denied that their firm trafficked in personal information,
saying they had hired others to obtain personal data when clients
requested it. "I never knew that using third parties to obtain
information was illegal," Ms. Yu said, according to trial
summaries.
In July, U.K.-based GlaxoSmithKline said it had hired Mr.
Humphrey to investigate the origin of a sex video taken secretly in
the bedroom of the drug company's top China executive. A
whistleblower, whose identity was unknown, sent the video along
with allegations of bribery to the executive's superiors in London,
the company said.
In September 2014, a Chinese court found Glaxo's Chinese
subsidiary guilty of bribery and fined the company nearly $500
million. In an interview aired last year by state broadcaster China
Central Television, Mr. Humphrey said while jailed that he wouldn't
have led the investigation had he known more about Glaxo's
situation in China. Glaxo didn't disclose to him any allegations of
bribery, he said. The company condemned the activities of the
Chinese business as "a clear breach of GSK's governance and
compliance procedures" and "wholly contrary to the values and
standards expected from GSK employees."
Glaxo wasn't mentioned in the couple's trial. A Glaxo spokesman
declined to comment on the interview Thursday. The company said
last year that it didn't hire the two to investigate the bribery
claims by the whistleblower.
In the interview, Mr. Humphrey listed those he was grateful to
but said that Glaxo wasn't among them. He declined to comment about
his relationship with the company.
"I'm not prepared at his stage to discuss any of my clients by
name. I need time to look at that," he said.
Mr. Humphrey, a U.K. citizen, was originally sentenced to 2 1/2
years, while Chinese-born U.S. national Ms. Yu got a two-year
sentence. Their release last week cut their sentences short by
seven months and one month, respectively.
In his interview Wednesday, Mr. Humphrey said the two had
conceded that they possessed "certain information" that they
received from third parties. But he defended his conduct, saying,
"we never bribed anyone. Our business was focused on the fight
against corruption and fraud. We spent year after year rescuing
companies from frauds and saving them millions of dollars."
Yang Jie and Laurie Burkitt in Beijing, and
Fanfan Wang
in Shanghai contributed to this article.
Corrections & Amplifications
At a daily news briefing on Thursday, Chinese Foreign Ministry
spokesman Lu Kang said that China didn't mistreat Mr. Humphrey. An
earlier version of this article misstated Lu Kang's name.
Write to Denise Roland at Denise.Roland@wsj.com
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