Chinese Researcher Indicted Again

Prosecutors have filed charges against a detained Chinese researcher for the New York Times, two months after a court dropped state secrets charges, his lawyer said today.

It was not immediately clear if the latest indictment was based on new allegations or the same ones that had been previously dropped against Zhao Yan, said the lawyer, Mo Shaoping.

Mo was told that the court had “resumed the case” against Zhao, an indication that it was reviving the initial charges, he said. But he couldn’t be sure without seeing the indictment documents, which he hoped to view sometime this week.

“It’s illegal and ridiculous for the prosecutors to say they are ‘resuming the case,’ ” Mo said. “If there is new evidence, then they have the right to charge him again, but you can’t use the term ‘restarting the case.’ ”

Under Chinese law, Zhao should have been released in March when the initial charges were dropped, regardless of whether a new investigation was underway, Mo said.

Prosecutors had failed to act on at least two formal requests for Zhao’s freedom after the charges were dropped. A new investigation of the researcher was announced last month.

Zhao was detained in 2004. His family was told he was accused of leaking state secrets to foreigners, but the government has not released details of the case.

The charges are believed to stem from a New York Times report published Sept. 7 saying former Chinese President Jiang Zemin was about to retire as chairman of China’s Central Military Commission, his last official post, and thereby formally hand over full power to Hu Jintao. Jiang retired 12 days later.