Judge Throws Out Organ-Selling Case
By Heather Harlan

NEW YORK—A judge last week threw out a highly-publicized conspiracy case against two men charged with plotting to sell body parts of executed Chinese prisoners.

Cheng Yong Wang, a former Chinese prosecutor, and Xing Qi Fu, who owns a laundry in Queens, were arrested in an FBI sting operation in February 1998 after informant Paul Risenhoover and Chinese dissident Harry Wu brought law enforcement authorities a tape they said they had secretly made. In it, Wu posed as a doctor while videotaping what he has said was Wang’s efforts to arrange the sale of body parts, including kidneys and corneas taken from the bodies of executed Chinese prisoners. After Wu contacted the FBI, the agency videotaped Wang and then arrested him.

But on March 15, U.S. District Judge Deborah Batts focused not on Wu’s credibility but that of Risenhoover as she dismissed charges against the two Queens men. The prosecution’s informant, she said, was a “fraudulent opportunist whose credibility at any stage of his involvement with any government entity ... should have been, and must now be, seriously questioned.”

In her 155-page decision, Betts said Risenhoover would “use any means” to further his “his own political, personal and possibly financial agenda” of anti-Communism. Prosecutors said they cut off contact with Risenhoover last summer after learning more about his political goals, but they didn’t tell defense lawyers until this year that he would be unavailable at the trial. Now, prosecutors say they don’t know where he is.

Wang’s lawyer, Oliver Smith, blasted the case as a politically motivated attempt to highlight allegations of human rights abuses in China, thus discrediting the government and furthering Risenhoover’s goals. Betts noted that Risenhoover had mistranslated Wang’s comments in at least one secretly taped conversation—when an FBI asked Wang if unclaimed bodies of prisoners were buried or sold, Wang replied in Mandarin Chinese that they were buried. Risenhoover, however, told the agent that Wang had said they were sold.

Smith asked that his client be released from custody, and Betts is expected to decide that question by the end of the month. Fu, meanwhile, has been free on bail.

A spokesman for U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White indicated she may appeal Batts’ decision.

“We respectfully disagree with the judge’s analysis and conclusion, and we are reviewing her opinion and assessing our options,” said Herbert Hadad of the U.S Attorney’s Office.
An employee at Wu’s Laogai Research Foundation in Washington, D.C., said Wu was unavailable for comment. Given the possibility of an appeal, “we are limited in what we can say at this point,’’ said spokesperson Yael Fuchs.