President Trump said he appealed to China’s president to send home three players accused of shoplifting.
The three UCLA men’s basketball players detained in China on suspicion of shoplifting are heading home, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Delta Airlines staff told the Journal that freshmen LiAngleo Ball, Jalen Hill and Cody Riley — who could have faced a lengthy sentence if convicted — boarded a flight bound for Los Angeles Tuesday in Shanghai. The report comes on the heels of President Donald Trump asking China’s President Xi Jinping for help in the matter.
„They’re working on it right now,“ Trump told reporters in the Philippines at the end of his trip to Asia. „(Xi) has been terrific.“
The players were questioned last week over allegations they stole sunglasses from a Louis Vuitton store next to a hotel in Hangzhou, where UCLA was staying during a season-opening trip. They were released on bail over the weekend and could have been required to stay in China for more than a week.
ESPN reported that there is surveillance footage of the players shoplifting, but U. S. official told The Washington Post that the charges were reduced.
The rest of the UCLA team returned home on Saturday.
