Family of executed Chinese scientist family not told of death

“I can’t even describe how I feel about this. Angry of course,” said Ran Chen, the daughter of Wo Weihan, a 59-year-old medical scientist put to death in Beijing on Friday.

“We have sent letters to the U.S. embassy asking them to help us to get further information, and we did the same with the Austrian embassy.”

Chen is an Austrian citizen married to an American. The Austrian embassy informed her of her father’s death shortly after his execution, but she said the Chinese authorities had remained silent.

She said the family wanted to know what happened to the body, as they were planning a funeral in Beijing, and whether Wo left a will.

“So far we haven’t received anything, but we really hope it’s going to happen today,” Chen said.

Wo, who lived in Austria between 1990 and 1997, was arrested in Beijing in January 2005. He was found guilty of giving military information to Taiwan and passing on details about the health of Chinese leaders.

The biochemist, who denied the charges, was sentenced to death in May 2007 after being convicted of passing state secrets.

Chen was allowed to visit her father in prison on Thursday for the first time in four years, not knowing that he would be put to death the following day.

Human rights groups and various Western governments criticized the handling of Wo’s case, with some saying the evidence was vague and the process lacked transparency.

The European Union and the United States both condemned his execution.

But China has rejected the criticism and defended the legal processes that led to Wo’s death.

“The trial procedure was just and fair and the rights of the accused were well protected,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang said in a statement released by the Xinhua news agency.

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