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eof [soylentnews.org] writes:

The New York Times reports [nytimes.com] that a Chinese-American physicist, Xi Xiaoxing, has had espionage charges against him dropped after the Department of Justice was encouraged to consult experts before proceeding with prosecution.

It was an embarrassing acknowledgment that prosecutors and F.B.I. agents did not understand — and did not do enough to learn — the science at the heart of the case before bringing charges that jeopardized Dr. Xi’s career and left the impression that he was spying for China.

“I don’t expect them to understand everything I do,” Dr. Xi, 57, said in a telephone interview. “But the fact that they don’t consult with experts and then charge me? Put my family through all this? Damage my reputation? They shouldn’t do this. This is not a joke. This is not a game.”

[...]The science involved in Dr. Xi’s case is, by any measure, complicated. It involves the process of coating one substance with a very thin film of another. Dr. Xi’s lawyer, Peter Zeidenberg, said that despite the complexity, it appeared that the government never consulted with experts before taking the case to a grand jury. As a result, prosecutors misconstrued the evidence, he said.

Dr. Xi was supposed to have passed along schematics of a sensitive technology, a pocket heater. One of the experts testifying that the schematics were not of the device was its co-inventor. This is the second Chinese espionage case dismissed in the last few months. [nytimes.com]

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