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| US prisoner freed after 10 years in China prison: US embassy |
| 2008-07-03 |
| A US citizen has been released from a jail in China after serving 10 years of a 16-year term for violating tax laws, a US official and rights groups said Thursday. Jude Shao was released from a Shanghai jail on parole on Wednesday, a US embassy spokeswoman in Beijing, Diane Sovereign, told AFP. 'US ambassador Clark Randt has spoken to Shao by telephone, confirming and welcoming his release from prison,' she said. Shao's case had drawn the attention of the US government at the highest level, with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other top US diplomats repeatedly calling for his release, she said. 'We welcome this development and urge China to continue to make progress on other prisoner cases and issues of domestic and international concern, such as those raised at our recent human rights dialogue,' the spokeswoman said. Shao was arrested in 1998 and convicted of tax evasion in March 2000 when his 16-year sentence was handed down, according to a website set up by his former classmates at Stanford Business School. The naturalised US citizen born in China was convicted of underpaying 119,000 dollars in value added taxes and evading 253,000 dollars in sales taxes. Shao, reportedly 46, maintained his innocence throughout the ordeal and had cited numerous procedural irregularities in his trial and conviction, the website said. During his trial, he was denied access to the seized records he needed to defend himself and was not allowed to meet with his attorney until 10 days before trial, it said. His real 'crime' was likely that he refused to pay bribes to Shanghai officials, it said. His case has widely been seen as evidence of widespread human rights violations in China. According to the website, six Chinese legal scholars had reviewed the case and found serious violations of due process. Besides the US government and a long list of US Congressmen, including Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and California Senator Dianne Feinstein, the San Francisco-based rights group the Dui Hua Foundation has also worked for Shao's release. 'Jude Shao's release reflects the hard work over many years of his Stanford Business School classmates and the US government, in particular President Bush, who repeatedly raised his case with Chinese President Hu Jintao,' Dui Hua director John Kamm said. 'His parole comes days after Secretary Condoleezza Rice's visit to Beijing and six weeks after the resumption of the US-China dialogue on human rights,' he said in a statement. |
| Posted by:anonymous5089 |
| #1 The naturalised US citizen born in China Not to the Chinese, he's not. He's Chinese through and through, and I'm sure the Chinese government didn't appreciate the US government meddling in its internal affairs. They'll imprison whoever they like for as long as they like. Frankly, it sounds like this fellow wanted to get things on the cheap without paying his 'license fees'. Just think about how much money he could have made had he played ball and avoided prison. Ten years is a huge opportunity cost, but I suppose he has the satisfaction that they couldn't make him pay. |
| Posted by: gromky 2008-07-03 09:00 |