China Parliament Asked to Probe Scholar's Detention

Reuters

BEIJING (Reuters) - The family of a Boston-based Chinese scholar, held in Beijing since 2002 on espionage charges, has asked China's parliament to investigate his illegally prolonged detention, his wife said on Saturday.

The continued detention of Yang Jianli, 40, a pro-democracy activist and U.S. permanent resident, after a closed-door, one-day trial last August has drawn fire from the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. The court, by law, should have handed down a verdict or set him free within two and a half months.

"Since December 1, 2003, there has been absolutely no legal basis for Yang Jianli's detention," read the letter to parliament signed by his father, mother, brother, sisters, wife and children. A copy was made available to Reuters.

They asked the National People's Congress, now holding its 10-day annual session, to conduct an independent and impartial investigation into the reasons behind Yang's detention and resolve the issue "timely, fairly and legally."

"Yang Jianli's father is 94 and really worried. He's a Red Army veteran. He believes his son is innocent," his wife, Christina Fu, told Reuters by telephone.

"I've written Yang Jianli at least one post card every week, but the lawyer told me he's only seen two to three. He has written us, but the court refused to pass it on," said Fu, a U.S. citizen.

Yang was arrested in April 2002 after entering China on a friend's passport and traveling for a week on a fake identity card to observe labor unrest in the northeast, where millions have been laid off from ailing state-owned companies.

He had been blacklisted and his return to China barred after he took time off his studies in the United States and came home in 1989 to participate in student-led pro-democracy demonstrations in Beijing that were crushed by the army.

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Source: "Reuters".