BEIJING — A Chinese businessman convicted of spying for Taiwan has been granted a second visit with his family, a decision that was expected to delay his execution for at least several days.
American and European leaders and human-rights groups have mounted a campaign to persuade China to commute the sentence of Wo Weihan, 60, arguing that the case against him has procedural and legal flaws that merit reconsideration of his 2007 death sentence. They argue that the case represents an opportunity for China to live up to the commitment it made last year to focus on legal reform.
Wo’s wife and one of his daughters, Austrian citizen Ran Chen, visited him Thursday morning for half an hour at the Second Intermediate People’s Court in Beijing for what they had assumed would be their final visit before his death. Chen said after the meeting that her father seemed to have no knowledge that China’s highest court had refused to overturn his death sentence.
“We went in there expecting to say goodbye to him forever, and he didn’t know anything,” Chen said. “That was very difficult for us.”
She added that he did not know what was happening when prison hospital officials woke him early, drove him to the court building and ushered his family in the door.
Seated handcuffed with two guards behind him, Wo spoke via a microphone through a large glass window before his wife, daughter, half a dozen more officials behind them and a video camera that recorded their conversation. Although his family members were instructed not to discuss the case, Wo reiterated his innocence and described to them the circumstances under which he claims he was forced to confess, saying his questioners promised him they would not press charges if he admitted guilt.
“My father still has enormous faith in the justice system of this country,” Chen said.
A spokesman for China’s Foreign Ministry, Qin Gang, said Thursday that Wo’s trial had been fair and followed procedures.
