US Congress marks third anniversary of Chinese dissident's detention

AFP

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States Congress marked the third anniversary of a Chinese scholar's detention in a Beijing prison, with one lawmaker condemning it as an act of "barbarism."

Dissident Yang Jianli, a US permanent resident and research fellow at Harvard University, has been languishing in prison on charges of espionage and illegal entry since his April 26, 2002 arrest.

Yang suffered a stroke last year and other medical complications, including numbness in the left side of the body, and was eligible for medical parole, said his American family lawyer Jared Genser.

He also said that the veteran of the Tiananmen Square student demonstration in 1989 was tortured and beaten up by prison guards.

Barney Frank, the Democratic Party Representative for Massachusetts, said he was "absolutely baffled" that the Chinese authorities would "engage in this kind of barbarism for which there is simply no justification.

"It is important for the Chinese government to understand that as long as they continue this brutal mistreatment of Yang Jianli and do not value basic human rights, they would not have that place in the world community that they so aspire to," he said.

The United Nations has said that his imprisonment is in violation of international law. Both the US House of Representatives and the Senate have unanimously passed resolutions demanding his release.

Chris Smith, the Republican Representative from New Jersey, said Yang's "unjust imprisonment was "representative of the larger, ongoing human rights tragedy" in China.

"Today, we have a clear message: Stop abusing human rights and release Jianli along with many other political prisoners held in your country if you seek our respect and that of the international community," he said.

Senator Jon Kyl from Arizona urged Beijing to release Yang on humanitarian grounds, saying it had an "opportunity to begin to move the US-China relationship in the right direction" by freeing him.

Yang was already eligible for normal parole on October 26, 2004 after serving half his five-year sentence.

His wife Christina said her husband was arrested for having entered China while using a friend's passport since his had been denied of renewal by the Chinese government because of his involvement in the Tiananmen protests.

"Yet now he sits, languishing in prison, three years later, having already more than paid the price for that one illegality," she said.

She thanked the Chinese government for allowing her and their son, Aaron, to visit Yang in January. They received his first letter from prison recently.

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Source: "AFP".