SYDNEY: Australian journalist Cheng Lei, who had been detained in China on national security charges for more than three years, returned home on Wednesday after being released, Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said.

Cheng, 48, was a business television anchor for Chinese state television when she was detained in August 2020 for allegedly sharing state secrets with another country.

Cheng, who was tried in secret in March 2022, arrived in Melbourne and has been reunited with her two children and family, Albanese told a press conference.

“Tight hugs, teary screams, holding my kids in the spring sunshine. Trees shimmy from the breeze. I can see the entirety of the sky now! Thank you Aussies,” Cheng wrote on social media.

Albanese said his government had been seeking for Cheng to be reunited with her children “for a long period of time and her return will be warmly welcomed not just by her family and friends but by all Australians”.

Published in Dawn, October 12th, 2023