JURIST - Paper Chase: Seoul court grants asylum to Chinese dissident who exposed illegal organ trade

[JURIST] The Seoul Administrative Court granted asylum Tuesday to a Chinese dissident who exposed allegations of human organ trading, overturning a ruling by the Ministry of Justice that denied asylum to the dissident and his family. The dissident, who is a member of the banned Chinese Democratic Party [HRW backgrounder] and has been in South Korea [JURIST news archive] since 2003, fears that he will be persecuted by Chinese authorities for exposing officials engaged in the illegal organ trade.

In May, China officially banned the sale of human organs [JURIST report], and codified penalties such as revoking medical licenses for doctors that engage in trafficking. International human rights groups allege that China routinely harvests organs [JURIST report] from executed criminals and accident victims without the consent of the donors' families, a charge that China has long denied. In March, an anonymous senior Chinese Supreme Court [official website] official told the state Xinhua News Agency that China uses the same strict organ donation procedures [JURIST report] when accepting organs from executed criminals as it does with any other organ donations, but doubt exists as to how the requirement for informed consent [JURIST report] is enforced. AFP has more.

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