Mar 18, 2010, 6:24 GMT
Sydney - Australia on Thursday urged China to ensure that employees of the Anglo-Australian mining company Rio Tinto Ltd receive a fair trial when their case comes before a court in Shanghai next week.
The fate of the four, who include Australian citizen Stern Hu, is being closely watched by foreign businesses worried that they too could fall foul of China's opaque legal processes.
'China's legal system is different to the Australian legal system,' Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said. 'The world will be watching how this particular court case is conducted.'
Hu, the head of Rio's iron ore business in China, has been held since July. He stands accused of industrial espionage and of bribing officials to get a higher price for Rio's iron ore exports.
Diplomats are to be allowed to witness the part of the trial dealing with bribery allegations but are to be excluded from the deliberations on commercial spying.
They have only been allowed to meet Hu once a month and were barred from discussing his case with the China-born executive.
Rio has denied all the allegations.
Greens leader Bob Brown, describing next week's proceedings as a 'farce,' declared that 'the sentence for Stern Hu will have been predetermined in Beijing.'
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