Detained Australian Writer 'refuses To Confess'

Australian writer Yang Hengjun, detained by Chinese authorities for 18 months, has told family he has refused to make a false confession, as his case appears to move closer to trial.

Yang's lawyer was on Thursday allowed access to the Beijing detention facility where the 55-year-old writer is being held, for the first time since he was detained in January last year, friends said.

Yang was formally charged with suspicion of espionage in March this year. Australia has strongly objected to the indictment.

"I am innocent and will fight to the end" Yang said in a message to his family, according to a friend, the University of Technology Sydney Professor Feng Chongyi.

"I will never confess to something I haven't done," he said in the message, a friend of Yang's, Feng said.

Yang, a prominent Chinese blogger, was intercepted by security officials at Guangzhou airport as he arrived on a visit from New York, where he lived.

Yang's family has appointed prominent human rights lawyer Mo Shaoping, who previously defended jailed Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo in a 2009 trial.

Feng said under the Chinese legal system there is six weeks left for Chinese prosecutors to take the case to court.

Australian consular officials had video link access with Yang on Monday, the first this year, after visits were suspended amid the coronavirus. (Reuters)