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The following is issued on behalf of the Judiciary:

On today's press reports about Lin Qiaoying's case, the Judiciary has immediately conducted an investigation into the claim and has listened to the tape recording of the proceedings of the case tried in San Po Kong Magistracy on October 12, 1999.

According to the court record, the part-time court interpreter of Fuzhou dialect had carried out the interpretation only according to what were said by the prosecutor and the duty lawyer who was representing Ms Lin during the hearing of the case. Ms Lin after listened to the interpretation, had indicated that she understood the charge, and pleaded guilty by speaking up.

After investigation, the Judiciary had found that the claim that Ms Lin had been instructed by the part-time court interpreter to plead guilty just by nodding her head was not true and therefore, would like to clarify that such claim was totally unfounded.

End/Tuesday, February 1, 2000

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