Harvard scholars call for release of dissident

AFP

BEIJING – A group of 63 scholars from Harvard University has signed a letter to China’s President Hu Jintao calling for the release of jailed dissident and Harvard researcher Yang Jianli, a US-based rights group said Friday. Pulitzer Prize winning author Samantha Power, noted scholar of Chinese law William Alford, prominent human rights academic Professor Henry Steiner and constitutional scholar Laurence H. Tribe have signed the letter, the group Freedom Now said. “Harvard University enjoys deep, longstanding, and important ties with the People’s Republic of China, and would hope to expand those ties in the future. Many of our most promising students have come from China,” the letter said.

“None of us want Dr. Yang’s ongoing detention to interfere with our strong partnership. “It is with this in mind, we hope that Yang Jianli’s parole will be granted when he becomes eligible this month.” Yang fled to the United States following the 1989 Tiananmen democracy protests, but was arrested in China when he tried to secretly sneak into the country using a friend’s passport in April 2002. The Harvard University research fellow will be eligible for parole according to the laws of China on October 26, 2004 after serving half his five-year sentence.

His case has brought to light China’s refusal to renew the passports of scores of its exiled political dissidents, which is a violation of international law and has effectively made many dissidents stateless. “We believe a decision to grant Yang Jianli parole would both show a commitment to justice within your country’s legal system, and help to strengthen the bilateral ties between China and the United States,” the letter said. On Wednesday the letters of 21 US senators and 85 members of the House of Representatives ad-dressed to Hu and urging Yang’s release were delivered to the Chi-nese embassy in Washington.

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Source: "AFP".