Wen Ho Lee (File photo)

Former U.S. nuclear weapon scientist Wen Ho Lee, once suspected of spying, has finally settled his privacy lawsuit with the U.S. government and five news organizations for over 1.6 million U.S. dollars.

The Associated Press said on Friday that the news agency and four other U.S. news organizations had agreed to pay Lee 750,000 U.S. dollars as part of the settlement, which will end court proceedings against five reporters of the news organizations who refused to disclose the sources of their stories on the government's investigation of Lee.

The other news organizations are The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post and ABC television.

The settlement will also allow Lee, a Taiwan-born American, to receive 895,000 U.S. dollars from the U.S. government for legal fees and associated taxes in the 6-year-old lawsuit, in which Lee accused the departments of Energy and Justice of violating his privacy rights by leaking information that he was under investigation as "a suspected spy for China."

Lee said in a statement that the settlement would "send the strong message that government officials and journalists must and should act responsibly in discharging their duties and be sensitive to the privacy afforded to every citizen of this country."

Lee, 67, a naturalized U.S. citizen, was fired from the U.S. Energy Department's Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico in March 1999 amid espionage allegations that the U.S. government has never been able to prove.

He was arrested on December 10, 1999, denied bail and was held in solitary confinement for nine months.

Never being actually charged with espionage, Lee was released in September 2000 under a plea bargain agreement in which the U.S. government dropped all but one of the 59 charges against him.

Upon his release, Federal Judge James Parker apologized to Lee and accused the U.S. government of "embarrassing our entire nation."

Lee then sued the departments of Energy and Justice as well as reporters from the five news organizations mentioned above.

In the lawsuit, he accused the government of leaking false information, and the reporters of damaging his reputation.

In 2004, a judge ruled that the reporters should pay fines on contempt of court charges for refusing to reveal their sources.

The settlement reached on Friday puts an end to all lawsuits filed by Lee.

Lee has never been able to get a new job since the espionage investigation, which he said had ruined his reputation.

Source: Xinhua