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Author Topic:   Dissident's Wife May Sue Yahoo
jwhop
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From: Madeira Beach, FL USA
Registered: Apr 2009

posted March 10, 2007 01:37 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for jwhop     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Dissident's wife may sue Yahoo
She alleges company 'betrayed' husband, sentenced to 10 years in Chinese prison
Verne Kopytoff, Chronicle Staff Writer
Friday, March 9, 2007


The wife of a Chinese man imprisoned in Beijing for promoting democracy lashed out at Yahoo Inc. for turning over information about him to authorities and said she will sue the Internet portal for what she called its betrayal.

Yu Ling, whose husband, Wang Xiaoning, was arrested five years ago, said that the Sunnyvale company doesn't care about human rights and that any damages she collects from her planned lawsuit will be used to try to win his freedom.

"Yahoo betrayed my husband," Yu said. "I think Yahoo is only concerned with its own benefit and interests."

Yu's comments came in an interview with The Chronicle on Wednesday, a day after she arrived in Washington, D.C., to start planning her legal fight. She is getting help from China Information Center, a human rights group founded by Harry Wu, a Chinese dissident who spent nearly two decades in Chinese labor camps before moving to the United States.

The organization has contacted several attorneys on Yu's behalf and is waiting to hear back about how to proceed.

Jim Cullinan, a Yahoo spokesman, declined to comment on any potential lawsuit and said "we condemn any punishment of any activity that is recognized as freedom of speech and expression."

Yahoo, Google Inc. and other Internet companies have faced withering criticism for their business practices in China, which include censoring search results about sensitive topics and providing information to authorities about users who flout the country's restrictive laws.

During congressional hearings last year, the companies were excoriated for their behavior and compared to Nazi collaborators. The companies steadfastly defend their actions, saying they are simply following the letter of the law in the countries in which they operate.

Human rights groups accuse Yahoo of providing information that helped imprison at least four Chinese dissidents, including Wang. He was sentenced in 2003 to 10 years in prison on charges of subversion.

Court documents translated by Human Rights in China allege that Wang used Yahoo Groups and Yahoo e-mail to spread articles promoting democracy and to communicate with an overseas opposition party. Yahoo Holdings (Hong Kong) Ltd. is cited in the judgment as providing some of the evidence, according to the group.

Cullinan said that Yahoo is unaware of the details of Wang's case and insisted that Yahoo's Hong Kong subsidiary doesn't share information with Yahoo China. He doesn't know why it was cited in the court documents.

In general, Yahoo is required to comply with search warrants and subpoenas everywhere it operates, Cullinan said. Chinese authorities don't generally say why they are seeking information or disclose the names of the individuals they are targeting, just their e-mail addresses, he said.

Yu said her husband of 28 years is being held at Beijing Prison No. 2 in a cell with nine other inmates. Food is poor, although she added that he is relatively well treated because of his high profile.

"I just worry about the Chinese government just using my husband to put pressure on him and punish him, and I'm really scared and I fear for him," Yu said.

Visits are allowed only a couple of times a month, at most, she said. They sit on opposite sides of a glass partition, holding telephones to speak with each other, 30 minutes maximum.

Yu, 55, said Wang, 57, was arrested in 2002 by police at their Beijing home, which they shared with their son. Two of the family's computers were confiscated.

At the time, the authorities told Yu, who works for China's railway department, to stay quiet about the detention.

"The day they arrested my husband, they came to me and my son, to not tell anyone that they arrested my husband because it would not be good for international society," Yu said.

She said that she was aware of her husband's political activities and that she supported them.

Anna Han, an attorney with White & Case in Palo Alto who specializes in trade and investment with China, said Yu will have a difficult time winning a case against Yahoo. Companies are rarely held liable in the United States for complying with foreign laws, even if the laws diverge from those in the United States.

"The chances of them facing liability are very minimal," Han said.

Yahoo's operations in China have since been taken over by a partner, Alibaba.com, a Chinese company in which it holds a minority stake.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/03/09/BUGC2OI21U1.DTL

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