Australian writer to face trial in China for espionage charges
10 October, 2020
Detained Australian writer Yang Hengjun will face trial in Beijing on an espionage charge with a judge likely to be appointed within the next fortnight, friends said on Saturday.
The 55-year-old blogger was detained by Chinese authorities in January 2019 at Guangzhou Airport after arriving from New York. He has been in a Beijing detention facility without usage of his family, while his wife remains in China.
His Beijing lawyers were notified on Wednesday that Yang’s case has been used in the Beijing Second Intermediate People’s Court, a friend told Reuters.
A judge is expected to be appointed within the next two weeks to listen to the case, said Feng Chongyi, a friend of Yang’s and professor at the University of Technology Sydney.
The Australian government said on Saturday it's been informed that “Chinese authorities are determined to prosecute Australian citizen Dr Yang Hengjun on charges yet to be announced”.
“We are obviously keen and also have been stressing in all our diplomatic engagements for this issue that there must be transparency, there must be a fair and just process, and they are the things that we stand for as Australians,” Prime Minister Scott Morrison told a news conference.
Beneath the Chinese legal system, the charge, evidence to aid the charge and a proposed sentence will get to the court in the beginning of a trial, Feng said.
“The system there is quite different from the system within Australia and that may cause some anxiety,” Morrison said.
Yang’s attorneys have met with him twice, for one hour each time, during the past month, his first legal access after 21 months of detention and interrogation by Chinese security authorities.
Consular access via videolink to Australian embassy officials was restored in September after being suspended amid the coronavirus.
“They know very well what they’re doing, and they’ll be providing tremendous support there,” Morrison said.
Yang told his family in a note last month that he was innocent and would “never confess to something I haven’t done”.
Australia has strongly objected to the indictment.
Diplomatic relations between China and Australia have deteriorated this year, after Beijing imposed trade reprisals in response to Canberra leading calls for an international inquiry in to the way to obtain the COVID-19 pandemic.
Last month China’s foreign ministry confirmed another Australian, Chinese state tv set host Cheng Lei, have been detained in Beijing and had been investigated on suspicion of endangering national security.
The Chinese foreign ministry didn't immediately react to a Reuters obtain comment on Saturday.
Source: www.asianage.com