According to a China News Service report on Sunday, Sun Lantao, the lawyer of a Chinese woman injured by a US police officer last year after being mistaken for an accomplice in a narcotics case, is optimistic about her giving evidence in court in two weeks.

Zhao Yan will arrive in the US at the end of next week for the hearing in a Buffalo City court on August 8 and 9 to demand 81 million yuan (US$10 million) in compensation for being attacked and floored by US Customs and Border Protection police officer Robert Rhodes on July 21, 2004.

Zhao, from Tianjin, was on her first American business trip and visiting Niagara Falls near the US-Canadian border when she said she and two companions unwittingly stumbled on the arrest of a man for possession of marijuana in a house.

"The policeman gestured for us to leave. When we hesitated, several policemen rushed out, sprayed pepper spray at us, pulled my hair and kicked me. I tried to make it clear that I was a tourist and asked for a Chinese interpreter, but they did not pay attention," Zhao said.

A local Tianjin report said police have found a key witness who will also give evidence in court.

Rhodes said in a written report that detectives had told him the three women, including Zhao, were the arrested man’s accomplices, and that he only used the pepper spray when they ran away after he tried to ask them questions.

(Xinhua News Agency July 26, 2005)