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Fired nuke scientist to go on trial in November
2000-02-18
ALBUQUERQUE - A federal judge on Thursday set November 6 as the trial date for Wen Ho Lee, a former government scientist charged with illegally copying U.S. nuclear weapons secrets, Reuters reported. Lee, 60, at the center of a controversy over alleged Chinese espionage, has been in jail since he was arrested in December on charges of downloading and copying classified nuclear weapons data from computers at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Lee has pleaded not guilty to the federal charges, which were filed seven months after the physicist was fired by Los Alamos last March amid allegations from congressional critics that China had stolen nuclear arms secrets in the 1980s. China has called those charges baseless. Lee has not been charged with espionage and the government has acknowledged it has no evidence that any secrets were passed to another country. The charges against him relate to computer downloads allegedly made in 1993, 1994 and 1997. A federal appeals court in Denver is considering Lee's request to overturn a lower court's January decision that he be kept in jail in Santa Fe without bail pending his trial. Federal prosecutors contend Lee must be kept in jail because seven computer tapes he allegedly made have not been found. Defense lawyers have argued the government has no proof those tapes exist.
US said China intensified spying (2000-03-09)U.S. senator releases report on "China spy" probe (2000-03-08)Fired nuke scientist to go on trial in November (2000-02-18)Wen Ho Lee's Attorneys Ask Court to Grant Him Bail (2000-01-19)U.S. scientist's children protest FBI techniques (2000-01-11)
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