Jude Shao, an American businessman sentenced to 16 years in prison in China on tax-evasion
charges may be re-tried by the highest court in Beijing.. In an e-mail released by his family in
California, Jude Shao said the Shanghai court telling him his case had been sent to the country's
high court in Beijing indicated that his appeal would be heard. Shao, 41, the Chinese-born,
naturalized U.S. citizen was arrested in April 1998 and convicted in March 2000 of tax evasion,
sentenced to prison and ordered to pay $86,000. Shao said he was innocent. A panel of Chinese
legal experts who reviewed Shao's case this year concluded he should get a new trial.
The U.S. ambassador to China, Clark T. Randt, included Shao's case in a list of Chinese "human
rights abuses" in a speech in June to an audience of American businessmen. Shao started a San
Francisco company that sold medical equipment to Chinese hospitals. (Source: Los Angeles
Times, Dec. 23, 2003)
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