Friday, December 04, 2009

Former China student leader tried on fraud charges

Nicholas Neighbors
12/04/09
2:31 PM

An exiled former leader of the 1989 student pro-democracy movement went on trial for financial fraud charges. The case was controversial in Hong Kong because the leader, Zhou Yongjun, kneeled on the steps of the Great Hall of the People beside Tiananmen Square in a plea for China's communist leaders to acknowledge student calls for political reforms and to bring an end to corruption. No verdict was announced but said the verdict would be announced at a later date. Zhou was living in exile in the U.S. but was arrested while attempting to enter Hong Kong in August 2008 and was sent to jail. He was planning on returning to visit his elderly parents. Zhou's lawyer said that charges came from a complaint by a bank about a suspicious request for tranfering funds out of an account. The account was under the name Wang Xingxiang and when Zhou was caught, he had a passport on him that was under that name.

This man was arrest for coming back to see his parents and got caught, its a sad situation because of the fact he was exiled for making a stand against the government. Its troubling to see the corruption in other countries and how the governments silence individuals who seek to speak freely against it. There is also an extreme lack of privacy as the man was transferring money from his account, however, it was also a bad move on his part to sign the money because the signatures didn't match. I would assume his punishment for returning is also going to be a heavy one, possibly paying with his life.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091119/ap_on_re_as/as_china_tiananmen

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