【英语中国】因交易中国国家机密获刑 美籍地质学家上诉

Xue Feng, a U.S. geologist convicted this month of trading in Chinese state secrets, has appealed to a Beijing court to overturn his eight-year sentence, his lawyer said Friday.

The lawyer, Tong Wei, said Mr. Xue's appeal challenges a Beijing Number One Intermediate People's Court decision that the oil industry information he was dealing in should be considered a national secret. He also appealed against the harshness of the penalty, which included a fine, Mr. Tong said.

Appeals in China rarely succeed. Mr. Tong said he is unsure how the court will respond.

Mr. Xue was first detained in late 2007 on allegations, outlined during his sentencing July 5, that he had tried to broker a deal to sell energy market data, including the location and other details of about 30,000 Chinese oil wells, to his then-U.S. employer, Englewood, Colo.-based IHS Inc. In the case, Mr. Xue argued that such information is widely traded and available in the global oil industry and that he didn't know it was secret in China.

During Mr. Xue's extended detention, U.S. President Barack Obama and Ambassador Jon Huntsman quietly lobbied Beijing to show leniency. Following Mr. Xue's sentencing, which Mr. Huntsman witnessed in the courtroom, the ambassador said Mr. Xue should be immediately released.

The Chinese court hasn't commented on the case, and no notice of the appeal appears on its website docket. China's Foreign Ministry has limited its comments to saying Mr. Xue has been treated fairly and the issue is a domestic one.

Mr. Xue's odyssey in the Chinese legal system is the latest case to highlight Beijing's sensitivity about information falling into foreign hands, the vagueness of its definition of national secrets and the risks that foreigners--in particular China-born ones, like Mr. Xue and a Rio Tinto Plc executive also convicted this year--may face in handling certain types of data.

本月，美籍地质学家薛锋因交易中国国家机密被判处八年徒刑。他的律师周五说，他已向北京的法院上诉，要求推翻原判。

Associated Press美籍地质学家薛锋的律师童伟（音）走出北京市第一中级人民法院。律师童伟（音）说，薛锋在上诉中质疑北京市第一中级人民法院的判决。这家法庭判定薛锋交易的石油行业信息应被视作国家机密。童伟说，他还就刑罚（包括罚金）的严厉程度提起上诉。

在中国，上诉极少能获得成功。童伟说不能确定法院将如何回应。

薛锋最初于2007年底被警方拘留。今年7月5日他的判决书中说，他被控安排了一次交易，向他当时的雇主──总部位于美国科罗拉多州的IHS Inc.出售能源市场信息，包括约30,000个中国油井的位置及其它详细信息。在此案中，薛锋称此类信息在全球石油行业中的交易范围很广，且易于获得，并且他不知道这在中国算是秘密。

在薛锋被长期拘留期间，美国总统奥巴马(Barack Obama)及驻华大使洪博培(Jon Huntsman)曾私下里向北京当局游说，要求后者手下留情。洪博培还在法庭上见证了薛锋的判决。他在宣判后说，薛锋应被立即释放。

判决此案的中国法院未就此案发表评论，其网站上也未出现有关薛锋上诉的通告。中国外交部的评论有限，仅表示薛锋受到了公正的待遇，并且这是中国的内政。

薛锋在中国司法系统中的长期遭遇彰显了北京方面对信息落入外国手中很敏感以及对国家机密的定义很模糊，还彰显了外国人，尤其是像薛锋以及今年被判刑的力拓股份有限公司(Rio Tinto PLC)高管等在中国出生的外籍人士在处理某些类型数据时所面临的风险。