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| "I take full responsibility for the mistakes I have made, shoplifting," Riley told reporters. “I know that this goes beyond me letting my school down. I let the entire country down.” |
Three UCLA basketball players have thanked Donald Trump for
his help in obtaining their release from a Chinese jail.
The players, who had been detained in China on suspicion of
shoplifting, admitted on Wednesday they stole items from three stores.
LiAngelo Ball, Cody Riley and Jalen Hill remain suspended
from the University of California, Los Angeles, basketball team indefinitely,
coach Steve Alford told a news conference.
All three apologised and thanked Trump for helping secure
their release by raising the issue with Chinese President Xi Jinping during his
visit, in their first public comments since being detained.
Trump on Wednesday morning said the players should be
grateful for his involvement.
"Do you think the three UCLA Basketball Players will
say thank you President Trump? They were headed for 10 years in jail!" he
wrote on Twitter.
The three basketball players were detained by police on
November 7 in the Chinese city of Hangzhou over allegations of shoplifting and
faced charges by Chinese authorities
They were not on the team's return flight to the United
States on Saturday and instead landed at Los Angeles International Airport on a
flight from Shanghai on Tuesday evening.
UCLA Athletic Director Dan Guerrero said the students were
released by Chinese police after paying $2,200 bail.
Guerrero said White House Chief of Staff John Kelly called
the students over the weekend to assure them that the government was working on
their release.
Chinese Foreign Ministry officials said the case had been
resolved according to law.
The UCLA team had been in China for a game against Georgia
Tech in Shanghai on Saturday, which UCLA won 63-60. The teams had traveled to
Hangzhou earlier in the week.
The three students, all freshmen, were taken in for
questioning by police about alleged shoplifting from a Louis Vuitton store,
sources previously told Reuters.
Guerrero said the Chinese police said items were taken from
three stores and searched the hotel rooms and bags of players on both the UCLA
and Georgia teams before identifying the players as suspects.