| A petition to the mainland's highest legal
authorities and medical parole are the only two
avenues still open to
Ching Cheong
for early
release, legal experts say.
Ong Yew-kim, a mainland law expert at Hong Kong's
Chinese University, said the failed appeal was the
last judicial procedure available to
Ching to challenge his conviction on spying
for Taiwan.
In China, we only have two trials for a case, he
said. The ruling is final. But
Ching could still petition the Supreme Court
of the People's Republic of China, the Supreme
People's Procuratorate, or the premier or president,
Mr Ong said.
He said a petition was a means of appeal when
every judicial procedure had failed, although
Ching's chances were slim. It is not unique
to mainland China. It exists in many places, he
said.
Michael Jackson, of the University of Hong Kong's
law department, pointed out that petitions were also
possible in Hong Kong.
If you run out of all the means to overturn your
case, you can send a petition to the chief
executive, urging him to look into the matter, he
said. This follows the practice in England.
Mr Ong said
Ching or his family could write what they
liked in the petition. They can state what went
wrong in the trials, provide evidence that they
think can prove
Ching is innocent, or talk about his good
character, he said. But China's system is so
unhealthy, I do not think he could be set free like
that.
Mr Ong believed
Ching had a good chance of being released on
medical parole.
Ching has been behind bars for quite a while
and is in poor health. Besides, China has a practice
of allowing people free on medical parole ... which
I do not want to elaborate here, he said, adding
that he was deeply disappointed by the appeal's
result.
The court had no sufficient evidence to convict
Ching for spying in the first place. The
appeal only made a ruling based on the mistakes of
the first trial, he said.
We dream night and day of an independent
judiciary in China. Judging from this case, we can
dismiss such thoughts now.?
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Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
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