China Plans to Try N.Y. Times Researcher, His Attorney Says

BEIJING, May 27 -- A Chinese researcher in the New York Times Beijing bureau accused of fraud and of divulging state secrets will be tried next month despite a court's earlier decision to drop the charges, his attorney said Saturday.

The trial of Zhao Yan, 44, was tentatively set to begin June 8 in Beijing No. 2 Intermediate Court after the charges were re-filed with the court, the attorney, Mo Shaoping, said he was told by a court official Friday. The charge of revealing state secrets is regarded as particularly serious under Chinese law, and acquittals are rare in such cases.

The prosecutor's move to re-file the charges, and the court's acceptance of them as the basis of a trial, means President Hu Jintao apparently has decided to disregard repeated requests from President Bush for Zhao's release. The requests were handed over by U.S. officials during Bush-Hu summit meetings in September in New York, November in Beijing and April in Washington.

According to people familiar with the case, Hu has taken a personal interest in the proceedings. Despite some attempts at reform, the Chinese judiciary has remained subordinate to the Communist Party and follows instructions from party officials at all levels of the hierarchy.

Zhao was detained in September 2004, shortly after the Times published a story predicting that former president Jiang Zemin would resign as head of the party's Central Military Commission, making way for Hu to complete his hold on the levers of power in Beijing. The story proved accurate, but it reportedly upset party leaders, who ban any unauthorized information on senior figures.

The Times said Zhao had not provided the information in the story and urged his release. But Zhao was charged with leaking state secrets to foreigners. Later, a separate charge of fraud was leveled against him, based on an unrelated earlier incident when he was working for a Chinese publication.

After a long investigation by the State Security Bureau, during which Zhao remained in detention, a prosecutor forwarded the case to court for trial early this year. But the court dismissed the charges in March, leading to predictions that Zhao would be released. Mo, the attorney, said Chinese law stipulated that Zhao should have been released then, even if the prosecutor wanted to continue the investigation.

In addition, that was just before Hu's April visit to Washington. Chinese authorities have made human rights gestures just before such visits to improve the atmosphere. Zhao remained in detention, however, while the prosecutor drew up the charges again.