China has released 10 Crown Resorts employees, including two Australians, after they spent nine months in prison on charges related to organising gambling tours.
The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs said the Australian nationals, identified as Jane Pan and Jerry Xuan, were freed on Wednesday.
A third Australian, Jason O’Connor, who heads the company’s international VIP programs, is expected to be released next month after 10 months in prison.
O’Connor was sentenced in a group trial last month with Pan, Xuan and 16 others.
Four employees emerged from a Shanghai detention facility accompanied by family members and security officials, according to a Reuters reporter at the scene.
They left immediately in cars without speaking to media.
Another six were released from a second facility in the city, said a man who identified himself as a lawyer for the families and who declined to give his name.
‘Everything went OK,’ a family member of one of the employees said.
Nineteen employees were detained as Crown was trying to attract high-spending Chinese to its casinos outside of China, where gambling is illegal except in the territory of Macau.
A court jailed 16 of the employees including three Australians for nine to 10 months, back-dated to their October detention.
The incident prompted Crown to shift focus to its home market.
It had been a shareholder of Macau-focused Melco Resorts & Entertainment Ltd but sold its remaining stake for $1.16 billion in May.
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