BEIJING: Beijing accused Washington on Wednesday of harming its own credibility after a top US intelligence official said his agency believed the pandemic “most likely” caused by a laboratory incident in Wuhan, China.
FBI Director Christopher Wray told Fox News on Tuesday that the Bureau has now assessed the source of COVID-19 was “most likely a potential lab incident in Wuhan.”
Chinese officials have angrily denied the claim, calling it a smear campaign against Beijing.
“The United States once again stirs up the laboratory leak theory, which will not discredit China, which will further lower its own credibility,” foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told a regular briefing on Wednesday.
Wray’s comments come after a report earlier this week said the US Department of Energy had determined that a leak from a Chinese lab was the most likely cause of the COVID-19 outbreak.
The department’s findings are significant because it works with a network of national laboratories, including some that do advanced biological research.
But other agencies within the US intelligence community believe the virus emerged naturally in the world.
In Tuesday’s interview, Wray also accused the Chinese government of trying to stall US efforts to investigate the causes of the pandemic.
“The Chinese government... has been doing its best to try to thwart and obfuscate the work here, the work that we’re doing, the work that our US government and close foreign partners are doing,” Wray said.
“And that’s unfortunate for everybody.”
At Wednesday’s press briefing, Mao reiterated a longstanding and unsubstantiated Chinese claim that the virus could have escaped from the US military research lab at Fort Detrick, Maryland.
“The US should respect science and facts, cooperate with the World Health Organization as soon as possible, invite international experts to conduct traceability research in its country, and share research results with the international community,” she said.
The scientific community sees it as crucial to determine the origins of the pandemic in order to better fight or even prevent the next one.
China says coronavirus ‘lab leak’ claims hurt US credibility
https://arab.news/ys99v
China says coronavirus ‘lab leak’ claims hurt US credibility
- Chinese officials angrily deny the claim, calling it a smear campaign against Beijing
- China says that the virus could have escaped from a US military research laboratory
India’s top court denies bail to 2 Muslim activists after 5 years in jail without trial
- The two student activists were a leading voice in nationwide protests against the citizenship law, which marked one of the most significant challenges to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government
- Amnesty International in a statement last year said Khalid’s “imprisonment without trial exemplifies derailment of justice” and is “emblematic of a broader pattern of repression faced by those who dare to exercise their rights to freedom of expression”
NEW DELHI: India’s Supreme Court on Monday denied bail to two Muslim student activists who have spent years in detention without trial over a conspiracy case linked to one of the country’s deadliest outbreaks of religious violence.
Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam were arrested five years ago under India’s harsh state security law and accused of conspiring to incite the communal violence that swept parts of Delhi in February 2020. The riots left 53 people dead, most of them Muslims, and took place amid massive months-long protests against a controversial 2019 citizenship law that critics said discriminated against Muslims.
While bail was granted to the other five accused in the same case, the court noted that Khalid and Imam had a “central role in the conspiracy.” It also said that the delay in their trial was not a sufficient ground for granting them bail.
“Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam stand on a qualitatively different footing as compared to other accused,” the Supreme Court said in its verdict, according to Bar and Bench, a legal news website.
The two student activists were a leading voice in nationwide protests against the citizenship law, which marked one of the most significant challenges to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government. Their detention has been widely seen as emblematic of a broader crackdown on dissent under Modi, drawing criticism from rights groups over the use of anti-terror laws against activists and student leaders.
In the months following the riots, police charged several activists and organizers, including Khalid and Imam, under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, that in the past was used only to quell violent insurgencies but under Modi has been largely used to silence political opposition. Activists and other dissenters targeted under the law can be held in pretrial detention almost indefinitely, often resulting in years of detention until the completion of trial.
Prosecutors representing the Delhi police had strongly opposed Khalid and Imam’s bail request, arguing that the violence was not a spontaneous outbreak but a deliberate plot intended to tarnish India’s global image, and that they made provocative speeches and instigated violence. Khalid and Imam’s lawyers argue that there is no evidence linking them to the violence and deny the charges against them.
Dozens of other Muslims were also charged in similar cases related to the riots and held under prolonged detention. Some of those cases later unraveled because police were unable to provide evidence linking many detainees to the riots.
Last week, eight US lawmakers wrote to India’s ambassador in Washington expressing concern over Khalid’s prolonged pretrial detention. They urged Indian authorities to grant him a fair and timely trial.
International human rights groups have also repeatedly urged Khalid and Imam’s release, saying their detention suppresses dissent and breaches fundamental legal protections.
Amnesty International in a statement last year said Khalid’s “imprisonment without trial exemplifies derailment of justice” and is “emblematic of a broader pattern of repression faced by those who dare to exercise their rights to freedom of expression.”
