China frees US-based activist after serving five years for spying

Apr 27, 2007, 11:43 GMT

Beijing - China released US-based pro-democracy activist Yang Jianli Friday after he served five years in prison for alleged spying, his lawyer said.

Officials in Beijing had freed Yang upon the completion of his full five-year sentence, his lawyer Mo Shaoping told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Yang planned to visit his father's tomb in the eastern province of Shandong before returning to the United States 'as soon as possible,' Mo said.

He is deprived of political rights for an additional year, meaning that 'in principle he is not allowed to talk to the media,' Mo said.

Yang was convicted of spying for Taiwan and illegally entering China.

He was sentenced to five years in prison in May 2004, following a closed trial in August 2003.

But the sentence was backdated to April 2002, when China arrested Yang, who had been banned from entering China after taking part in the 1989 pro-democracy movement.

Yang had worked as a research fellow at Harvard University in the United States and was the head of the US-based Foundation for China in the 21st Century until his arrest.

China's government-run Xinhua news agency said Yang had entered China using a false passport and used a false Chinese identity card to carry out his alleged spying.

China said Yang was first directed in 1991 by a 'Taiwan spy organization' in San Francisco to collect confidential papers of the Chinese government, and alleged that he later established his own spy agency with funds from Taiwan.

His arrest drew fierce criticism from human rights groups and US politicians.

After his two-year detention without trial, dozens of US Congress members sent a letter to Chinese President Hu Jintao demanding Yang's release.