After nearly two years of waiting, the case has been transferred to the court for prosecution and is expected to go to trial soon.
According to Deutsche Welle, Yang Hengjun’s lawyer, Shang Baojun, was officially notified on October 7 that the “Yang Hengjun case” had been transferred from the Beijing No. 2 People’s Procuratorate to the Beijing No. 2 People’s Court. Shang Baojun said he expects to receive a formal indictment on October 13.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told a daily news conference Monday (Oct. 12) that Yang Hengjun had been indicted for espionage on Oct. 7, saying, “The Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People’s Court filed a lawsuit in accordance with the law, and the case is currently under trial.
Zhao Liqiang said the Chinese authorities will handle the case strictly in accordance with the law and will do their utmost to protect Yang Hengjun’s legal rights.
The Australian government has long expressed strong dissatisfaction with the Chinese authorities’ unjustified arrest of Yang Hengjun. Prime Minister Scott Morrison recently reiterated that Australia has always demanded transparency, fairness and justice from the Chinese authorities in the “Yang Hengjun case”.
Yang met with his lawyer twice in the last month, his first legal meeting since his arrest at Guangzhou Baiyun Airport on January 19, 2019, 22 months after his arrest, and told him that he was innocent and would fight to the end. In a letter to his family, Yang wrote, “I will never admit what I did not do.
During his detention, Yang Hengjun said he was interrogated for long periods of time, handcuffed, chained and blindfolded, and that his health was deteriorating. His lawyer, Shang Baojun, stated that Yang Hengjun faced torture during his interrogation in detention.
Since his arrest, his wife, Yuan Ruijuan, has tried three times to leave China by purchasing airline tickets, but she has been stopped by Chinese customs and refused to leave the country. Yuan Ruijuan has permanent residency in Australia.
Yang Hengjun’s doctoral supervisor, Professor Chongyi Feng, a China expert at the University of Technology, Sydney, said that the Chinese authorities’ actions were typical of the persecution of Yang Hengjun’s political expression, and that Yang Hengjun was part of China’s “hostage diplomacy.
Feng believes that if the international community and democratic countries could work together to put pressure on the Chinese authorities, perhaps they would relent.
Relations between Australia and China have plummeted since April of this year, when Australia called for an independent international investigation into the source of the new coronavirus. The Chinese authorities have retaliated against Australia with a series of high tariffs, anti-dumping investigations, and “hostage diplomacy.
In August of this year, Australian citizen Cheng Lei, who worked for Chinese state media CCTV, was secretly arrested by Chinese national security authorities for national security issues.
Recent Comments