"Even though I was reinstated at UTK, the pain and damage are still there," Hu said. He's getting his research lab back together and reached out to the few students still at the university who were a part of his original team.īut Hu doesn't feel like he's achieved justice. Working for justiceĪfter a nearly four-month waiting game, Hu's work visa application was approved, and he started back at UT on Feb. "I could not leave my career permanently damaged," Hu said. citizen, a process that he had started before he was arrested. Giving up his tenured faculty position, giving up years of research and giving up his chance to become a U.S. More importantly, returning to Canada would be giving up, Hu said. First, his car had broken down after nearly two years without use. The day he was acquitted, Ivy told Hu to drive back to Canada immediately.īut Hu couldn't immediately return to Canada for two reasons. The federal prosecutors said they would try Hu again, but Varlan acquitted Hu before they had the chance. And ask a lawyer to appear and talk with the law enforcement agent," Hu said. Looking back, Hu wishes he had kept quiet. "The best practice is keep silent. Hu received a NASA-funded grant in 2016.įederal prosecutors alleged Hu intentionally hid his summer job at Beijing University of Technology from NASA. Ultimately, Hu was arrested on the six federal charges under a 2011 law that prevents NASA from distributing research funds to China or corporations owned by China. "The problem is they thought I was a spy, then they looked for the evidence," Hu said. When he refused, they surveilled him and his oldest son, a UT student at the time, for more than a year, but found no evidence that he was a Chinese spy. International collaboration and open science - this is a basic value and principal."ĭuring the conversation, the agents asked Hu to work as a spy for the U.S. "I didn't feel fear because that's only science collaboration. It's clear he's only been in his office three weeks his desk is nearly empty, and the dark blue walls are bare. Immigration and Customs Services to secure his work visa, Hu is back on the university's payroll. A federal judge acquitted Hu of all charges in September 2021, and after an exhausting battle with the U.S. Now, Hu sits in his new office in the Nathan W. The details are too painful for him to talk about publicly. "When I was thrown into the jail, the first 48 hours was real darkness in my life," Hu told Knox News, a part of the USA TODAY Network, in an exclusive interview. Justice Department had accused Hu, an associate professor at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, of hiding his ties to China and attempting to defraud NASA.
27, 2020, Anming Hu was sitting in a jail cell, staring at a concrete wall and wondering how he ended up there in the first place. KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - Exactly two years ago on Feb. Hu rebuilds his life after being acquitted.
0 kommentar(er)
