The Australian novelist and former Chinese diplomat Yang Hengjun has been charged with espionage in Beijing.
Yang has been detained in China since January when he was arrested in Guangzhou. He is being held in Beijing in a ministry of state security detention centre.
The Australian embassy was informed by the Beijing national security bureau on Monday afternoon that Yang had been formally charged, “suspected of committing espionage crimes”.
Yang’s lawyer Rob Stary confirmed his client had been charged with “a single act of espionage”, though there were no details of the alleged act. It is not clear whether the charge relates to his work as a writer, blogger or democracy activist. It is also unclear whether Australia is the country he is alleged to have spied for.
Yang, a naturalised Australian citizen since 2002, was initially held under a system known as “residential surveillance at a designated location”, a type of secret detention in which authorities can deny access to lawyers and family, and restrict external communication.
In July he was moved to a Beijing detention centre in the lead-up to expected charges. Australian consular officials have been allowed one half-hour visit each month.
SOURCE: Theguardian
Featured Image- The Australian writer Yang Hengjun has been charged with espionage in China. Photograph: Facebook
