British mother-of-two faces being 'detained without trial' after Free Tibet protest



Mandie McKeown will be deported at the end of the month

A British woman faces being detained without trial in China after participating in a Free Tibet demonstration, the Foreign Office has said.

Mother-of-two, Mandie McKeown, 41, was arrested in Beijing during the protest and will be deported on August 31.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: 'Consular officials are in contact with her and her family in the UK.

'We continue to underline to the Chinese government the need to respect its commitment to freedom of expression.

'At the same time, we encourage all UK visitors to China to respect local laws.'

Philippa Carrick, chief executive of parliamentary lobby group The Tibet Society, said: 'It is just outrageous that people can be held without trial.

'She was just filming the protest, she was not touching a Tibetan flag or anything.

'I think she would have released the footage to You Tube if she had not been caught.

'It makes a mockery of the assurances about human rights that China has given to the Olympic Committee.'

'We want to make sure Gordon Brown is fully briefed about this ahead of the closing ceremony.'

Activists from Students for a Free Tibet are among those to have protested

Pro Tibet activists have protested throughout the Beijing Olympics. One arrested British woman now faces being detained without trial

Fabian Hamilton, a Tibet Society council member said: 'I am appalled that anyone should be arrested and sentenced to imprisonment without trial simply for speaking out about Tibet.

'This just shows the other face of China which their authorities don't want us to see. There is clearly no democracy, no freedom of speech and no rule of law in China and it's about time we spoke out and made our views known.'

Mrs McKeown, from Bristol, has a five-year-old son, Hamish, and a three-year-old daughter, Neve.