Posted on 05/08/2006 5:12:57 PM PDT by dennisw
US prosecutors seek harsher charges in Chinese military 'plot' Agence France-Presse.
LOS ANGELES, May 8 (AFP) May 09, 2006 US prosecutors warned Monday they plan to seek harsher charges against an engineer and two kin accused of plotting to steal sensitive US Navy warship technology and trying to smuggle it to China. The plans to beef up charges against Chinese-born engineer Chi Mak, 65, his wife, Rebecca Chiu Lai-wah, 62; and Mak's brother, former television director Mak Tai-wing, 56, came at a pre-trial hearing in Los Angeles.
Assistant US Attorney Greg Staples confirmed to US District Judge Cormac Carney that prosecutors intend to upgrade the charges from the current counts of acting as agents for the Beijing government without being registered to do so, a much lesser charge than espionage.
"That's correct," Staples replied when Cormac asked if the US government intended to seek a new indictment containing "more serious charges" against the trio.
Asked when the new charges could be added, Staples responded: "We're talking a matter of weeks."
The three suspects were arrested in October after Mak Tai-Wing was arrested at Los Angeles airport as he and his wife boarded a flight to Hong Kong with an encrypted computer disc in their baggage, prosecutors allege.
The disc contained highly-sensitive data allegedly taken by Chi Mak from a computer belonging to his employer, Paragon, a US military contractor developing secret stealth technology for US warships.
But prosecutors said they are still poring through 40,000 pages of documents seized in searches that only came to light shortly before an indictment was handed down against the trio in November.
Trial for the trio had been scheduled to begin on May 16, but Carney set a new trial date of November 7.
I guess they needed some extra time to figure out they should be charged with something approaching espionage. God knows how much of this is going on undetected.
Yard arm, anyone?
Hold these folks until we get better concessions. Lets say, 2 Tianemen Square protestors for their spies.
Ha ha, some spies. Who carries disks?
Los Angeles jury? They'll walk.
We should start selling their organs to Japanese businessmen
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