By: (AP) Prosecutors are refusing to release a detained Chinese researcher for The New York Times even though charges of passing state secrets were dropped last week, his lawyer said Tuesday.
Lawyer Mo Shaoping said he has filed two requests for Zhao Yan's release, but prosecutors are keeping him in a Beijing detention center, apparently awaiting instructions from their superiors.
Zhao has been held since 2004 on charges of leaking state secrets to foreigners. The government has given no details of the charges, but they are believed to be linked to a Times report that year on plans by former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin to give up a key military post.
A court dismissed the charges last week in a surprise move before President Hu Jintao's visit to the United States.
Prosecutors let stand a fraud charge against Zhao, but Mo said they failed to follow legal guidelines in their handling of the charges and were no longer entitled to hold him.
"I'm now demanding that the prosecutors release Zhao Yan immediately," Mo said. "If they do not release him, they will face charges of illegal detention."
According to Mo, prosecutors said they dropped the state secrets charge because they needed more time to investigate the fraud allegations against Zhao. But Mo said the regulation they cited does not include that as a justification, meaning they should release Zhao.
Mo said he visited Zhao in detention Tuesday to explain the status of his case.
"I told him: 'You are now an innocent person,'" the lawyer said. The Times is the flagship newspaper of the New York Times Co.
China is believed to have jailed more journalists than any other government, with 32 behind bars, mostly on charges of violating national security or subversion laws, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.
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