Lawyers for Wen Ho Lee Ask Appeals Court for His Release on Bail

Lawyers for imprisoned nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee asked an appeals court on Tuesday to free him on bail, saying the public interest is not being served by keeping him shackled in jail.

On Friday, just minutes before the former Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist was scheduled to be set free on a $1-million bond, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals here issued an order stopping him from going home.

Federal prosecutors have argued that Lee would endanger national security if he was freed on bail because he may have seven tapes still hidden and because he has acted deceptively in the past.

But on Tuesday, Lee’s lawyers said not only would the U.S. government not be harmed by his release because of strict security measures put in place, but continued jailing of Lee “under extremely harsh and demeaning conditions” would substantially injure him.

“Surely, it does not serve the public interest to maintain an imprisonment that erodes the basic sense of fairness that undergirds the Constitution,” Lee’s New Mexico lawyers argued in court papers filed in Denver.

“Nor does the public interest lie in jailing and shackling a 60-year-old scientist who has had no previous involvement with the criminal justice system,” Lee’s lawyers said.

Lee was fired by the laboratory in March 1999 and indicted in December on 59 counts of illegally copying documents on U.S. nuclear weapons design. Lee has pleaded not guilty to all counts.