Ten employees of Australian casino operator Crown Resorts were released from prison on Wednesday after spending nine months in detention for the illegal promotion of gambling.
Australian nationals Jerry Xuan and Jane Pan Dan along with two other Crown employees walked out of their Shanghai detention facility where they were met by family members before quickly leaving in cars, according to Reuters.
Six more detainees were released from a separate facility in the city.
Reuters reported one family member as saying “everything went okay.”
“We want to see what the company does next … and how it treats those involved,” they added.
The 10 were among 16 Crown Resorts employees sentenced to between nine and 10 months in prison last month, with the sentence dating back to the time of their arrest last October.
Another employee will reportedly be released tomorrow while Crown’s head of international VIP, Jason O’Connor, is set to be freed on 12 August.
Crown Resorts will pay a total of RMB8.62 million (AU$1.67 million) in fines ex gratia for its 16 jailed staff members, with Mr O’Connor’s fine totalling RMB2 million, Ms Pan Dan RMB400,000 and Mr Xuan RMB200,000.
The employees were convicted last month of contraventions of Article 303, Clause 1 of the Criminal Law of the People’s Republic of China, stating that “anyone who organizes gambling parties or is engaged in gambling as one’s main business for the purpose of making profits shall be sentenced to not more than three years of fixed-term imprisonment, detention or surveillance and shall be jointly fined.”
They were also convicted under Article 25, Clause 1 whereby “a joint crime is an intentional crime committed by two or more persons jointly.”
