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December 1, 2006
 

Chinese Court Rejects Appeal by Researcher for The Times

By JIM YARDLEY
BEIJING, Friday, Dec. 1 — A Beijing appeals court on Friday upheld a fraud conviction against a Chinese researcher for The New York Times in a ruling that means he will probably remain in prison until his three-year sentence ends next September.

The researcher, Zhao Yan, sought to overturn an August fraud conviction that stemmed from a period in 2001 when he worked as a reporter for a Chinese magazine. He has maintained his innocence, and his legal team has complained that the appeals court prohibited them from mounting a vigorous case.

Witnesses inside the High Court of Beijing said the judge called the case shortly after 9 a.m. on Friday.

“Do you have anything to say?” the judge asked Mr. Zhao.

“What kind of judge are you?” Mr. Zhao answered, according to the witnesses. “Is this how you use the power the country gave you?”

Outside the courtroom, Guan Anping, a lawyer for Mr. Zhao, criticized the court. “Zhao Yan wasn’t given the opportunity to testify in court,” Mr. Guan said. “He was not allowed to call witnesses or present certain evidence. They sustained the verdict without having another trial. The verdict was based only on the written materials.”

The case of Mr. Zhao, 44, has attracted international attention while raising questions about the rule of law and press freedom in China. Mr. Zhao was initially charged with leaking state secrets to The Times, which could have meant a prison sentence of more than 10 years.

The charge was linked to a September 2004 article in The Times, which reported that former President Jiang Zemin had unexpectedly offered to step down as chief of the military, his last leadership post. The Communist Party bars Chinese news organizations from reporting on high-level politics, and the Times article, based on anonymous sources, quickly prompted a high-level government investigation to determine the source of the leak.

Mr. Zhao joined the Beijing bureau of The Times in April 2004, after working as an investigative journalist for different publications. He was arrested less than two weeks after the publication of the Times article in September and accused of being a source for the article, which both the newspaper and Mr. Zhao have denied.

His trial was held last June, but a verdict was delayed until August, when, in a surprise, the lower court dismissed the state secrets charge. But Mr. Zhao was sentenced to three years on a lesser fraud charge that investigators added a few months after his initial arrest in the state secrets case. The two charges are unrelated, and some legal analysts have questioned whether investigators added the charge as a move to save face.

The fraud charge involves an accusation against Mr. Zhao by a minor official in Jilin Province. The official claimed that Mr. Zhao had taken a cash payment in exchange for promising to use his position as a journalist and his political influence to help the official avoid serving in a forced labor camp. Mr. Zhao has denied the accusation and has said that all of the witnesses against him are friends or relatives of his accuser. Mr. Zhao has already spent more than two years in prison and is scheduled for release next September. His lawyers say that his health has worsened.

On Thursday, Jiang Yu, a spokeswoman for China’s Foreign Ministry, was asked during a regular news briefing about Mr. Zhao’s case and the larger question of press freedom in China. “China is a country of rule of law,” Ms. Jiang said. “This case has always been dealt with according to Chinese laws and legal procedures.”


 
Conviction of Researcher for New York Times in China Is Upheld
 

By Maureen Fan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, December 1, 2006; A20
 

BEIJING, Dec. 1 -- The three-year fraud sentence of a Beijing-based researcher for the New York Times was upheld by Beijing's High Court on Friday, the only remaining charge against him after a more serious accusation of leaking state secrets was dismissed in August.

"The fraud charge itself is not fair because they didn't give our witness any chance to speak in court," said Zhao's attorney, Guan Anping, who was kept waiting outside the courthouse with reporters and did not appear with his client. "The fraud charge depended heavily on evidence, and this evidence was not presented in court. Both the prosecutors and the defense only submitted written statements."

For Zhao Yan, 44, it was the end of a lengthy legal process that could have meant 10 years in prison. It was not clear Friday whether he could appeal to the central government's Supreme People's Court for reconsideration through a "supervisory process," Guan said, which is technically outside normal legal procedures.

Zhao was detained in September 2004, 10 days after a Times article accurately predicted that former president Jiang Zemin would resign his last official position as head of China's Central Military Commission. Zhao and the Times have consistently denied that he was the source for news about Jiang's retirement, which was not unexpected but viewed as a state secret.

Zhao's case was originally dismissed in March, weeks before current President Hu Jintao visited the United States. But Zhao remained in detention, and prosecutors renewed their charges in May. His case has been the subject of lobbying by President Bush.

After the more serious charge was dropped, Zhao was sentenced in August to three years for the unrelated fraud charge, in connection with his job as a Chinese newspaper reporter before he worked for the Times. Prosecutors say that Zhao promised to help a man in Jilin province in exchange for $2,500 but that he did not deliver the help.

Zhao maintains his innocence. The man did not complain to police or file a legal complaint, and the fraud charge was leveled only after authorities began investigating the state secrets charge, Zhao's attorneys have said.

Zhao has served more than two years of his sentence and has 10 months remaining. He could be released in September.

His daughter, aunt and uncle appeared in court Friday. It was Zhao's relatives who came outside about 9:15 a.m. and informed Zhao's attorney and the media of the result.

"Zhao told the court: 'You even made a mistake with my birthplace and my age. How can you give me a trial?' " said the uncle, Zhao Hongfeng, 56. "It's not what I expected. I believe he's innocent."

Researcher Li Jie in Beijing contributed to this report.

 
A court official, right, hands papers to Guan Anping, left, the lawyer of jailed New York Times researcher Zhao Yan, after Zhao's appeal was rejected at the High Court in Beijing Friday Dec. 1, 2006. Looking on are Zhao's daughter Zhao Jingtian, second left, and family friends. The court rejected the appeal by Zhao, who is serving a three year prison term after being convicted on a fraud charge. (AP Photo/Greg Baker)
camera works Photo Credit: AP Photo

 

China Rejects Times Researcher, Activist
 

By AUDRA ANG
The Associated Press
Thursday, November 30, 2006; 11:03 PM
 

BEIJING -- Chinese courts on Friday rejected the appeal of a New York Times researcher and upheld the four-year prison term of a blind activist, according to parties connected with the cases.

The Beijing High Court delivered its judgment on Times researcher Zhao Yan's appeal in a five-minute session, lawyer Guan Anping said in a telephone interview.

Zhao was convicted of fraud in August but acquitted of a more serious charge of revealing state secrets. He was sentenced to three years but could have received a 10-year term.

His case has drawn international attention amid efforts by China's communist government to tighten controls on the media. Dozens of reporters have been jailed, often on charges of violating China's vague secrecy and security laws.

The New York Times said it had no immediate comment on the ruling but would issue a statement later.

Meanwhile, the Yinan County court in Shandong province upheld its decision to sentence blind activist Chen Guangcheng to more than four years in prison after he documented claims of forced abortions, the activist's brother said.

The decision was issued in a 30-minute session, where no witnesses or evidence were presented, said Chen Guangfu, the only family member allowed to be present during the proceedings.

Chen Guangcheng was convicted in August of damaging property and "organizing a mob to disturb traffic" and sentenced to four years and three months in prison.

Earlier this month, an intermediate court where Chen filed an appeal overturned the sentence, citing inadequate evidence, and sent it back to the lower court in Yinan County in Linyi city.

The decision is a blow to Chen's case, which has garnered attention from human rights activists who say it is an example of official retaliation and unjust imprisonment of dissidents based on phony charges.

Telephones were not answered at the Yinan County court.

Zhao, 44, argued in his appeal that the prosecution's evidence did not amount to a criminal charge and that a defense witness was not allowed to testify during the trial.

A high court judge reviewed the first trial on paper and no witnesses or evidence were allowed to be presented, Guan said.

"I'm very sorry about this outcome," he said. "It's unfair to Zhao Yan."

On Aug. 25, the Beijing No. 2 Intermediate Court convicted Zhao of taking $2,500 from a man in 2001 on a false promise that he would use his official connections to have the man's 18-month sentence in a labor camp rescinded, according to state media reports.

Zhao claims he never took the money and says he has a witness willing to testify on his behalf who was not allowed to appear in court.

The court concluded there was insufficient evidence to convict Zhao on the more serious charge of revealing state secrets. The government never released details of that charge, but the case is believed to stem from a Times report on then-Chinese president Jiang Zemin's plans to relinquish his post as head of the military.

Before joining the Times in 2004, Zhao was an investigative reporter for Chinese publications and wrote about complaints of official corruption and abuses in the countryside.

© 2006 The Associated Press