NEW YORK (Reuters) - A former New York City police sergeant charged with acting as an illegal Chinese agent for allegedly intimidating a U.S.-based fugitive from China went on trial on Wednesday and argued he did not know that country's government was behind a private surveillance job he took. | May. 31
Michael McMahon is on trial in New York City along with Yong Zhu, and Congying Zhen as acting as Chinese agents to track down dissidents who had fled and intimidate them into returning.
An ex-NYPD sergeant didn't know that he was working as an agent of Beijing's "Operation Fox Hunt" when he took a private surveillance job, his lawyer argued.
An American sleuth and two Chinese men are facing jurors in the first trial to come out of U.S. claims that China’s government has tried to harass, intimidate and arm-twist dissidents and others abroad into returning home. The trial of Michael McMahon, Zheng Congying and Zhu Yong opened Wednesday in a federal court in Brooklyn. They are charged with being part of a scheme to hound a former Chinese city official, his wife and their adult daughter to get the man to go back to his homeland. The defendants all maintain they weren’t aware they were doing Beijing’s bidding in what’s known as “Operation Fox Hunt.” China has denied all accusations of making threats to force repatriations.