960420

HK lawmakers

to press China

to free ailing reporter

HONG KONG: Hong Kong legislators will petition China for the early release of ailing Hong Kong journalist Xi Yang who was jailed on the mainland two years ago for espionage.

A Legislative Council (Legco) spokeswoman said on Saturday a majority of legislators voted on Friday to write to Qiao Shi, chairman of the Standing Committee of China's National People's Congress (parliament), to press for Xi's release.

Xi, a mainland Chinese but a Hong Kong-based reporter with the newspaper Ming Pao, was convicted in March 1994 at a trial in China on a charge of stealing state secrets and was given a 12 year sentence.

He has recently been reported to be ill with heart trouble in a Beijing cell.

On Thursday, Governor Chris Patten told legislators that he and senior British ministers would continue to urge China to set Xi free.

But Patten warned them against being over-hopeful.

"(You) would know the slightly more limited capacity for intervention when one is talking about somebody with resident status rather than citizenship or a passport," Patten said.

The South China Morning Post reported Legco also decided to fax similar petition letters to British Foreign Secretary Malcolm Rifkind and his Chinese counterpart Qian Qichen.-Reuter