Powell's help sought in securing medical parole for Chinese dissidentAFP Dec. 15, 2004 BEIJING (AFP) - The US lawyer representing high-profile dissident Yang Jianli, who has suffered a stroke while in a Chinese jail, said he had asked US Secretary of State Colin Powell to help in securing medical parole for his client. A letter was sent to Powell just hours after Yang met his brother, sister and nephew in his Beijing jail for his first encounter with relatives since being arrested two-and-a-half years ago, according to lawyer Jared Genser. "They spent one hour together," Genser told AFP, describing the emotional meeting at Beijing's No. 2 Prison. "They had the opportunity to be in the same room, to embrace and to cry." Yang, who is serving a five-year sentence for espionage, told his family that he had suffered a minor stroke while in prison in late July and that he was hospitalized for a week afterwards. "He actually is personally very concerned about his health," Genser said. "While he is mentally coherent, he is still suffering complications in the form of numbness in his left side." In his letter to Powell, Genser urged the US government to call on China to release Yang on medical parole, enabling him to return to his family in the United States. "Not only would this result be the best outcome for his health and his family, but it would also remove an ongoing and unnecessary irritant in US-China relations," Genser said in his letter. Since his arrest in 2002, the Harvard University research fellow has been one of the most high-profile dissidents in Chinese custody. US Vice President Dick Cheney raised his case during an April visit and the UN Human Rights Commission cited a lack of due process in his arrest and trial. Yang fled China following the 1989 Tiananmen democracy protests and was blacklisted by the government which refused to renew his passport or issue him travel documents to return to his homeland, in violation of international law. He tried to secretly sneak into China in April 2002, but was arrested in southwestern Kunming city. -------------------------- |