[JURIST] A hearing in China's case against former New York Times researcher Zhao Yan [HRIC profile, PDF] has been scheduled for Friday, Zhao's lawyer announced on Monday. Zhao is charged with providing state secrets to foreigners, and faces a possible prison sentence of 10 years. The court could render a verdict during the hearing, which was previously delayed in both July and June [JURIST reports]; however, it remains unclear whether a verdict will actually be handed down.

Zhao was formally indicted [JURIST report] on the state secrets charges in December after a 2004 New York Times report [text] revealing the resignation of Jiang Zemin as head of the military before it was formally announced by the government. The charges were dropped in March, but China continued to detain Zhao [JURIST reports] and eventually reinstated the charges. The Chinese maintain that Zhao's detention is legal [JURIST report] under Chinese law. Reuters has more.