The families of two Americans detained in China for more than a decade are calling on President Donald Trump to use his visit to Beijing to work for their release.
Both Dawn Michelle Hunt, 54, and Nelson Wells, Jr., 52, have been held since 2014, unwittingly caught up in drug trafficking schemes, their families said.
Now, their mental and physical health is suffering after years behind bars.
Hunt was scammed while participating in what she thought was a free trip to Hong Kong, mainland China, and ultimately Australia, her brother Tim Hunt said. While in mainland China, she was gifted purses that – when she was stopped at the airport – were lined with drugs. She was found guilty and sentenced to death.
Wells was similarly duped by an acquaintance who asked him to help carry a bag at the airport as he was leaving China, his father, Nelson Wells, Sr., said.
When officials opened the bag, there were baked goods containing “an enormous amount of drugs” inside them, his father said. Wells was originally sentenced to life in prison, but following an appeal, his sentence was lowered to 22 years.
Wells has been experiencing seizures and his teeth are cracking, his father said.
Hunt, according to her brother, has uterine fibroids and may have uterine cancer. “Mentally, she’s broken,” he said.
Last May, the US State Department requested their release on humanitarian grounds. Now, the families are urging Trump to raise their cases in his meetings in Beijing.
A spokesperson for the State Department confirmed Hunt and Wells’ detention and said the agency “including the U.S. Mission in China unwaveringly advocates for the health and welfare of all US citizens detained in China.”
Ahead of his trip, Trump said he would raise the cases of other people detained in China, including Jimmy Lai and Pastor Ezra Jin.
This post has been updated with a statement from the State Department.
