By JOE MCDONALD
Associated Press Writer
02/10/2005
Associated Press Newswires
Copyright 2005. The Associated
Press. All Rights Reserved.
BEIJING -- China's supreme court has rejected an appeal by a U.S. businessman serving a 16-year sentence on tax evasion charges in a case that prompted calls by Washington for his release and criticism of the Chinese legal system, according to his supporters.
The court notice to Jude Shao, delivered last week and dated Nov. 22, leaves him with few legal options, according to Chuck Hoover, a friend who has led lobbying efforts for Shao's release.
"The petition denial reinforces that it will take a political solution to earn Jude's freedom," Hoover wrote in an e-mail to The Associated Press.
Shao was detained in 1998 on charges that his Shanghai-based company evaded taxes. The Chinese-born, naturalized U.S. citizen was sentenced in March 2000 and ordered to pay $86,000.
Supporters contend Shao was wrongly accused by tax auditors after he refused their demand for a bribe. Shao expressed optimism in late 2003 when a Shanghai court told him to file an appeal with the Supreme People's Court in Beijing, saying judges might be willing to reconsider his conviction.
U.S. lawmakers have called for Shao's release, and he is among several people in Chinese prisons whom U.S. Ambassador Clark T. Randt has cited in speeches about "human rights abuses."
Several other prisoners singled out by Randt in public comments have later been released, often in connection with visits by high-ranking U.S. officials to Beijing.
The high court's notice says new evidence presented by Shao in his appeal fails to overturn "clear facts and sufficient evidence" that his company, China Business Ventures, submitted phony receipts in order to evade taxes, according to a copy of the notice e-mailed by Hoover.
Hoover's e-mail criticized the court's decision as "arbitrary and selective in its interpretation of the facts" and complained that its "reasoning is faulty."
Phone calls to the Supreme People's Court on Friday, a national holiday in China, weren't answered. In 2003, a panel of six Chinese legal scholars in Beijing who were retained by Shao concluded that there was insufficient evidence to convict him and said he deserved a new trial.
Shao's family also has asked for release on medical grounds, citing a heart problem they say has worsened in prison. China has used medical parole in the past to release prisoners in politically sensitive cases.
