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US Court to Decide Whether to Set Wen Ho Lee Free on Bail
A federal appeals court will hold a closed-door hearing on Monday to decide if former government scientist Wen Ho Lee should be set free on bail while he awaits trial on charges he mishandled US nuclear arms secrets, the court said on Wednesday.
"For security reasons the hearing will be closed," the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals said in a three-sentence order.
Previous hearings in the case in federal district court in New Mexico where the case has been filed have also been secret because of the focus on classified information. The judge, defence lawyers and prosecutors have all had to get special security clearances so they can wade through mounds of documents.
"This is upsetting because openness in our judicial system is one of its most important aspects," Mimi Wesson, a law professor and former federal prosecutor said. However, she also said it was logical to close the hearing because of the nature of the case. "Also, this is a pre-trial hearing. It's not like a secret trial," she added.
Lee's family and his attorney said they had no comment.
On Friday, the appeals court here intervened and stopped the jailed former Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist from being freed on $1 million bond.
Lee, 60, was fired by the laboratory in New Mexico in March 1999 and indicted last December on 59 counts of illegally copying what prosecutors called "the crown jewels" of US nuclear weapons design. Lee, who has pleaded not guilty to all the counts, has been in jail in Santa Fe since then.
Federal prosecutors have argued that Lee would endanger national security if he was freed on bail because he may have seven tapes still hidden and because he acted deceptively in the past.
Lee's lawyers, family and supporters have said the Taiwanese-born naturalised US citizen was unfairly singled out by the Federal Bureau of Investigation because of his race.
A federal judge in New Mexico had originally ordered Lee kept in jail until his trial, but changed his mind, saying it was no longer clear that Lee copied top secret data or acted deviously as alleged by prosecutors.
The judge set last Friday as the time for Lee to be released, but federal prosecutors asked the appeals court here to intervene and block the release.
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