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US Court Stays Bail Release of Wen Ho Lee
With only minutes to spare, a US appeals court intervened on Friday and stopped jailed former Los Alamos scientist Wen Ho Lee from being freed on $1 million bond while he awaits trial on charges that he mishandled US nuclear arms secrets.
In response to prosecutors' claims that Lee might have top US nuclear secrets hidden away somewhere, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver said "the release of the appellee (Wen Ho Lee) is stayed pending further order of the court."
The one-sentence order was made public just before a noon (2 p.m. EDT)(1800 GMT) deadline for Lee's release from a New Mexico jail where he has been held for eight months in virtual solitary confinement.
The defence complained bitterly about how quickly the appeals court in Denver acted. Lee's lawyers had wanted to file a response to the government's emergency motion, but the appellate court in Denver acted before it had a chance, according to defence attorney Nancy Hollander.
Lee, 60, has pleaded not guilty to 59 counts of illegally copying computer data on nuclear weapons design at Los Alamos National Laboratory. He is scheduled to go on trial in November.
Lee was fired by Los Alamos in March 1999 amid allegations of Chinese spying at the premier US nuclear weapons lab. But in December 1999 he was indicted not for espionage but for acting "with the intent to injure the United States" by copying classified weapons design.
The 10th Circuit acted in response to a motion by prosecutors to keep Lee in jail while they prepared to appeal a judge's order that he be released.
In its motion to stop Lee's release, the government argued that "the degree of danger associated with Lee's release, in combination with the extraordinary conditions imposed by the court, indicate that this case will present unique issues on appeal which will require a reasonable amount of time for the court of appeals to review."
Prosecutors said they feared Lee still had possession of "the crown jewels" of US nuclear weapons designs on seven tapes he made at Los Alamos. Lee said he destroyed the tapes but prosecutors said they might still exist.
In filings with the appellate court, prosecutors said: "all agree that the government has not found the missing tapes, nor is there any evidence establishing that they have already been transmitted to an unauthorised recipient."
US District Judge James Parker in Albuquerque last week ordered the computer scientist be released to his house in the Los Alamos suburb White Rock, although under home detention and strict 24-hour surveillance.
Parker set out a 12-point list of "highly restrictive" conditions for Lee, limiting him to his house and backyard and subjecting his wife to searches by the FBI when she goes out or comes home.
Lee's telephone calls and mail would be monitored and his adult children could only visit during daylight hours after giving advance notice to the FBI. His wife Sylvia Lee would have to give agents four-hour notice that she planned to go to the grocery store or anywhere else.
Prosecutors argued that the very strict nature of the conditions meant Judge Parker "implicitly agreed that Lee continues to pose a serious danger."
The government contends that even under heavy confinement Lee might be able to "surreptitiously send a signal which could have resulted in the missing tapes being located and obtained by another," according to court filings.
Lee's family, who travelled to Albuquerque to sign the requisite papers for his release, had no comment on the latest setback to their efforts to get him out of jail.
Lee's family and supporters alleged the Taiwanese-born US citizen was unfairly singled out for investigation and prosecution because of his race.
Two former counterintelligence officials have signed sworn affidavits supporting those claims, the Washington Post reported on Friday.
The affidavits, released late on Thursday by Lee's lawyers, said Lee's race was the determining factor in targeting him in the absence of credible evidence that Chinese spies had stolen nuclear warhead secrets from the laboratory.
"I did not believe then and I do not believe now that Dr. Lee engaged in espionage," Robert Vrooman, the former director of counterintelligence at Los Alamos, said in his sworn declaration.
In a separate report the Los Angeles Times said three highly prestigious US academic organisations have publicly protested Lee's treatment, saying he "appears to a victim of unjust treatment" that "reflects poorly on the US justice system."
The highly unusual protest, signed by the presidents of the National Academy of Scientists, National Academy of Engineering and the Institute of Medicine, was contained in an open letter to US Attorney General Janet Reno, the Times reported.
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