China jails man wanted in US
- Source: Global Times
- [02:31 November 30 2009]
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An American man wanted in the US on terrorism charges has been sentenced in China for manufacturing illegal drugs, the AP reported Saturday.
Justin Franchi Solondz was given three years in prison Friday, said an official at the intermediate court in Dali, Yunnan Province said.
Solondz was caught last winter at the Sun Island bar. Police discovered that he was carrying small amounts of opium and marijuana and he provided fake Canadian identification, according to The New York Times.
Dali police said they discovered 33 pounds of marijuana buried in the courtyard of the house that Solondz rented, as well as what the prosecutor described as a drug laboratory inside the house.
On the advice of the New York University, Solondz hired Chinese lawyer Zeng Yuexing, dean of the law school at Kun-ming University of Science and Technology.
During a daylong trial last month, Solondz pleaded guilty to drug charges and asked to be deported to the United States.
It wasn't clear whether Solondz will be deported to face the terrorism charges. And a spokesman from the US embassy in Beijing said Satur-day he wasn't able to confirm Solondz's deportation, the AP reported.
The FBI office in Seattle lists Solondz among its "most wanted." Its website said the 2006 charges are related to his alleged role in 2001 with the Earth Liberation Front, a loose collection of radical environmentalists.
The site said Solondz is accused of having a role in the destruction of a horticulture center at the University of Washington, as well as the destruction of several buildings in Oregon.
Agencies
