A 33-year-old Chinese man was
arrested on July 3 shortly after arriving at Milan's Malpensa
airport on warrant from the United States, sources said on
Monday.
Zewei Xu is wanted by the FBI for allegedly being part of a team
of hackers that allegedly carried out espionage operations,
particularly in 2020 on anti-Covid vaccines being produced at
the University of Texas.
Interior ministry documents said he is also accused of being
part of a "large-scale cyber intrusion campaign orchestrated" by
the Chinese government known as 'Hafnium', which "targeted
thousands of computers around the world" to get information on
"various U.S. government policies."
A hearing on the U.S. extradition request is set to take place
on Tuesday at Milan's Court of Appeals.
The suspect's family say he is simply a technician for an IT
company.
"Both my husband and I do not agree with extradition to the
United States," his wife told the Postal Police after the man's
arrest.
"Him getting an entry visa to Italy should be a confirmation
that we have not committed crimes, so I cannot understand the
reason for my husband's arrest. "My husband works as an IT
manager at Shanghai Gta Semi Conductor Ltd (...) and develops
IT systems and network infrastructure".
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