Australian writer Yang Hengjun sentenced to death by Chinese court

Feb. 5 (UPI) -- A Beijing court handed Australian writer Yang Hengjun a suspended death sentence on Monday, Foreign Minister Penny Wong of Australia said, some five years after he was detained in China on national security charges.

Wong confirmed the suspended sentence in a statement, saying the Australian government understands that if Yang does not commit any serious crimes in the next two years it could be commuted to life imprisonment.

"This is harrowing news for Dr. Yang, his family and all who have supported him," she said.

Novelist, blogger, former Chinese diplomat and outspoken critic of the Beijing government, Yang was detained in China in January 2019. U.S. officials have said that he was held incommunicado for several months until he was formally arrested that August and was charged two months later as a spy.

His closed-door trial was scheduled for May 27, 2021, and Monday's announcement follows repeated delays, Australian officials said.

"This period has been extraordinarily difficult. Like so many Australians, I am moved by Dr. Yang's strength, and the strength of his family and friends," Wong said.

She said the Australian government has consistently advocated for Yang at the highest levels of the Chinese government and that they will continue "to press for Dr. Yang's interests and wellbeing, including appropriate medical treatment and provide consular assistance to him and his family"

"We will not relent in our advocacy," she said.

Foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin confirmed the sentenced on Monday, stating he was found guilty of espionage and that along with being sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve the Second Intermediate People's Court of Beijing ordered his personal property be confiscated, the state-run Global Times tabloid reported.

Australia has repeatedly raised concerns over Yang's detention and health, as well as having called on the Chinese authorities to explain the charges against him and to demand his immediate release.

In May 2021 when the start date of his closed-door trial was announced, then-foreign minister Marise Payne of Australia said Yang has had no access to his family and limited or delayed access to his legal representation.

The U.S. 2020 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices concerning China states Yang was interrogated more than 300 times "at all hours of day and night, for four to five hours at a time."

"After arbitrary detention, torture, unfair trial, this heavy sentence is alarming," Maya Wang, interim China director at Human Rights Watch, said Monday on X.

"Even more outrageous is that Yang may have been punished for being a China critic."

Australian Member of Parliament with the Liberal Party described Yang's sentence as a tool designed to intimidate defenders of democracy and free speech.

"The fate of Dr. Yang Hengjun matters to all of us," he said in a statement on X. "Securing his freedom must be a line in the sand."

Yang was detained a month after the Asian nation arrested Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor also on national security charges in what was widely seen as retaliation over Ottawa's arrest of Huawei's chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou.

Spavor and Kovrig were released in September 2021, shortly after Canada released Meng.