By Elishya Perera
SYDNEY, Australia (CWBN)_Chinese authorities have delayed the trial of Australian writer Yang Hengjun by three months, sources familiar with the case say.
Australian officials visited Dr Yang, a PhD graduate of the University of Technology Sydney, on Thursday (Dec 17), and it is reported that the Australian government has still not been informed on the exact details of his arrest.
Dr. Yang, who was born in China and once worked for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Communist regime, became an Australian Citizen in 2002.
He was detained in January last year and was formally arrested in August on suspicion of endearing the national security of China. A couple of months later, he was formally charged with espionage and was due to face trial later this month or in January 2021. However, sources familiar with the case say that the trial has now been postponed and is likely to be moved to April instead.
The 55-year-old pro-democracy blogger has been subject to more than 300 rounds of interrogation which allegedly involved various forms of torture, in an attempt to extract a confession on THE unspecified claims. For an eight-month period from December 2019, he was denied any visits from friends, family and Australian officials, which Beijing has blamed on the COVID-19 outbreak.
Earlier this year, Amnesty International called on Chinese authorities to release Dr. Yang “immediately and unconditionally” unless there was sufficient credible evidence that he had committed an internationally recognised crime. The human rights group also asked China to ensure Dr. Yang had unrestricted access to visits from family, lawyers and consular staff.
