泰峰

https://www.backchina.com/u/277868

Chinese ex-NASA worker to be released pending trial

作者：泰峰于 2013-4-27 14:20 发表于最热闹的华人社交网络--贝壳村

作者分类:Democrazy|通用分类:热点杂谈

关键词：Racial, Discrimination

http://hamptonroads.com/2013/03/chinese-exnasa-worker-be-released-pending-trial
Posted to: Crime Nation - World Newport News News
By Bill Sizemore
The Virginian-Pilot © March 28, 2013

A Chinese scientist facing federal prosecution after losing his job at NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton will be released from custody until his trial.

In a case that has drawn international attention, Bo Jiang, 31, has been held since his arrest March 16 as he prepared to board a China-bound plane at Dulles International Airport outside Washington. He is charged with lying to federal agents who questioned him about the computer equipment he was carrying.

At a detention hearing Thursday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Lawrence Leonard ordered Jiang released after a federal prosecutor acknowledged there is no evidence so far that he possessed any sensitive, secret or classified material.

Jiang will be under supervision of the federal probation office, will be prohibited from traveling outside the Eastern District of Virginia, and will be tracked by an electronic monitoring system. He has surrendered his passport.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Lisa McKeel argued that Jiang is a flight risk, saying he attempted to leave the country abruptly after a Virginia congressman publicly identified Jiang in connection with an investigation of NASA security procedures.

In a series of hearings and news conferences over the past several weeks, U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Fairfax County, has accused NASA of allowing foreign workers such as Jiang improper access to sensitive information.

Jiang, who has a doctorate in electrical and computer engineering from Old Dominion University, worked two years for the National Institute of Aerospace, a Hampton-based NASA contractor. He was fired in January, two months after taking a NASA-owned laptop computer with him on a visit to China, a violation of NASA security regulations, McKeel said.

Jiang's attorney, Fernando Groene, acknowledged that point but said federal investigators have found no sensitive material on that computer or on any of the electronic gear Jiang was carrying on his aborted trip this month.

Groene said Jiang's work at the federal space agency was confined to material that has been in the public domain since 1995.

Jiang faces a single felony charge of making false statements. It carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison, but the standard sentencing guideline is zero to six months.

Groene suggested that the incomplete answers Jiang gave the agents who questioned him at Dulles - which resulted in the lying charge - could be attributed to his poor English skills.

"He's very smart. He has algorithms coming out of his ears," Groene told the judge. "But he is atrocious at speaking the English language."

Jiang had decided to go home, Groene said, because he had lost his job, his work visa was about to expire, and "he had been, in so many words, denounced as a Chinese spy by Congressman Wolf."

McKeel said Jiang had unrestricted access to NASA-Langley. "He could come and go as he pleased," she said, "even at night." She said agents are still scouring Jiang's electronic gear.

A jury trial was set for May 29.

Bill Sizemore, 757-446-2276 , bill.sizemore@pilotonline.com