The Australian writer, Yang Hengjun, has been sentenced to death by a court in China, five years after he was arrested and charged with espionage.

The BBC has reported that the sentence could be replaced with life imprisonment after two years, and the charges, which were not made public, have been denied by the writer and novelist who writes about issues of the Chinese state. The Australian government has said it is horrified by the decision.

The Foreign Minister, Penny Wong, has summoned the Chinese embassy in Australia for an explanation of his case, while adding that she will not give up on the request for his release.

“We have consistently called for basic standards of justice, procedural fairness, and humane treatment of Dr. Yang, in accordance with international norms and China’s legal obligations,” the ministry’s reaction states.

Yang, who has worked in China’s Ministry of State Security, is considered a “democracy peddler,” but his writings often avoided direct criticisms of the government.

The case of the 58-year-old has been handled entirely in isolation, including a court session in 2021.

China has the death penalty in its law for a range of actions. International reports say that thousands of people receive this sentence every year, but the statistics are classified as a state secret.