Chinese Researchers Who Cited Covid-19 Risk Will Stay Jailed

A pair of medical researchers from China, who are deemed flight risks and therefore incarcerated pending their trial for stealing trade secrets and wire fraud, can’t get out of jail because of the Covid-19 pandemic, a federal district court in Ohio said Thursday.

Li Chen and Yu Zhou conducted human cell research for Nationwide Children’s Hospital. They allegedly used secret companies to funnel their research to China.

The government presented evidence that Chen and Zhou, who are married, had family in China, regularly traveled there, and the U.S. doesn’t have an extradition treaty with China. They also only had one grown son in the U.S.

A magistrate judge determined Chen and Zhou were flight risks, and ordered them detained.

Chen argued her detention determination should be reopened because new and material information had come to light and her health is at risk. Covid-19 created an unforeseeable health emergency; social distancing is nearly impossible in jails, which are notorious incubators for viruses; and her release would reduce the risk of the jail becoming a cluster site of Covid-19 infections, she said.

Covid-19 does present a novel and unprecedented change in circumstances, but doesn’t affect whether there are conditions of release that will reasonably assure future appearances in court, Judge Sarah D. Morrison of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio said.

The crimes charged required intelligence, planning, capital, deception, international communications, and international motives, the court said. They also carry severe penalties, it said.

Chen and Zhou still have financial resources, international connections, and incentive to flee, the court said, refusing to revoke their detention.

Demidchik Law Firm represented Chen. Seiden Law Group PC represented Zhou.

The case is United States v. Zhou, 2020 BL 124166, S.D. Ohio, No. 2:19-CR-163(1) and (2), 4/2/20.