Yang Hengjun’s family urges Albanese to negotiate with China for jailed Australian writer’s release

autotldr Bot , 8 months ago

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The children of jailed Australian writer Yang Hengjun, detained for more than four years in China, have pleaded with Anthony Albanese to negotiate his release in Beijing this week, telling the prime minister his situation is critical and their father risks “being left to die”.

Yang has collapsed in prison and been told he has a 10cm cyst growing on his kidney, his sons said in a letter to Albanese, emphasising there was “a narrow window of opportunity” to secure his release.

Last month, in a significant diplomatic victory for the Albanese government, Chinese-born Australian journalist Cheng Lei was freed from detention in China and returned home to her family in Melbourne.

He was initially held under a system known as “residential surveillance at a designated location”, a type of secret detention of up to six months in which authorities can deny a suspect access to lawyers and to family, and restrict external communication.

His trial was held in May 2021 but he has still not received a verdict, with the Beijing high court granting multiple three-month extensions on the deadline for handing down a decision.

“We ask that you make it clear that it is not possible to stabilise the bilateral relationship with a government that is holding an Australian citizen just a few kilometres south of where you will be hosted.”

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