SHANGHAI--A married British-American couple went on trial Friday
in Shanghai for alleged breaches of privacy.
The appearance in Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate People's Court of
58-year-old Briton Peter William Humphrey and his partner and wife,
Yu Yingzeng, 60, a U.S. citizen, marked the couple's first court
date since they were detained in the middle of last year.
The couple's surprise arrest last year came days after Chinese
authorities publicly leveled bribery allegations against drug giant
GlaxoSmithKline PLC, which had hired the investigators to conduct
part of an internal probe into malfeasance into its local
operations.
The prosecutor opened Friday's proceedings by reading the
indictment, which alleged Mr. Humphrey and Ms. Yu illegally
obtained more than 200 records of Chinese citizens between April
2009 to July 2013, according to an account published on the court's
official microblog. "It's serious and such behavior is against
Chinese criminal law," the prosecutor said, while reading the
indictment.
The court indicated that it would initially handle allegations
against Mr. Humphrey and that Ms. Yu would be led out of the
court.
Mr. Humphrey was asked whether the indictment is correct, the
official account of the proceedings said. "In general, it looks as
if there is nothing wrong. But regarding the indictment, I don't
understand the Chinese law so I'm not in a position to comment,"
the court's microblog account quoted Mr. Humphrey as saying.
The court prosecutor also asked them about the formation of
their investigative firm, ChinaWhys Co., and their business between
Hong Kong and mainland China.
The initial minutes of the trial covered procedural issues such
as confirmation of whether the defendants had seen the indictment
handed down within the past 10 days or so. They were detained in
July 2013 and formally arrested the following month.
The couple was represented by attorneys; consular officials also
attended the trial, along with family members.
The court released a photo of the couple standing before the
judge.
The Shanghai court said the trial was open. Some visitors who
hoped to attend were told there were no seats. Foreign media
weren't permitted to enter the courtroom, and instead were invited
to watch summaries of the proceedings as they were published online
from an anteroom that featured an oversize computer screen. Police
sat in the back row.
--Fanfan Wang in Shanghai and Yang Jie in Beijing contributed to
this article.
Write to James T. Areddy at james.areddy@wsj.com and Laurie
Burkitt at laurie.burkitt@wsj.com
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