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PHNOM PENH, Cambodia June 19, 2012 (AP)

Cambodian police have arrested a Frenchman reportedly linked to a politician at the center of China's biggest
political scandal in years. Cambodian authorities informed the French Embassy in Phnom Penh of the arrest of
Patrick Devillers, embassy spokeswoman Laurence Bernardi said Tuesday. She said no reason was given and the
embassy was seeking an explanation from the Cambodian government.

It was unclear whether Devillers' arrest was related to China's ongoing investigation into Bo Xilai, the former
Communist Party chief of the Chinese city of Chongqing who was dismissed in April. News reports have said that
Devillers was closely linked to Bo, Gu and Heywood. It is not clear if he is accused of any crimes in China or elsewhere.



Phnom Penh police chief Gen. Touch Naruth confirmed Devillers' arrest but declined to provide further information.

Calls to the Chinese Foreign Ministry rang unanswered Tuesday night.

Devillers, an architect, had helped Bo rebuild the northeastern Chinese city of Dalian when he was the city's mayor
in the 1990s. The Frenchman and Gu were partners in setting up a company in Britain in 2000 to select European
architects for Chinese projects and both gave the same address of an apartment in the English city of Bournemouth.

An unidentified friend of Devillers as saying the architect left China in 2005 and has been living in Cambodia more
or less continuously for about six years.