SAN FRANCISCO, California (Reuters) -- Yahoo Inc. has filed a motion to dismiss a lawsuit over the company's alleged role in the imprisonment of two Chinese dissidents, arguing U.S. courts have no jurisdiction over Chinese government actions against its own citizens.
Attorneys for Yahoo and its Hong Kong unit argued in a motion filed on Monday that U.S. laws governing issues such as privacy rights, torture and false imprisonment do not apply to Chinese citizens for actions that occurred in China.
Attorney Daniel Petrocelli of O'Melveny & Myers LLP said the case should be dismissed because plaintiffs' legal arguments hinged on a rejection of China's right to enforce its own laws.
"No matter how strenuous our disagreement, every sovereign nation has a right to regulate within its borders," Yahoo's attorney argued in his motion to dismiss the case.
The lawsuit alleges that Yahoo Inc. and Yahoo's Hong Kong subsidiary turned over information on the dissidents' online activities. The defendants used Yahoo China e-mail accounts and group lists to publish political literature, the filing said.
Separately, Yahoo Hong Kong Ltd. filed a motion to be excluded from the suit, citing a lack of jurisdiction by a California court over a Hong Kong company for actions in China.
Petrocelli noted in his motion to dismiss that the Hong Kong Privacy Commissioner had concluded in a previous case brought by plaintiff Shi Tao that Yahoo's disclosure "was not a voluntary act initiated by Yahoo Hong Kong Ltd. but was compelled under the force of (Chinese) law." That decision is being appealed on behalf of Shi.
Plaintiffs in the case include Wang Xiaoning, an editor of pro-democratic publications in China who was arrested in 2002 by Chinese police on charges of "incitement to subvert state power" and sentenced to a 10-year prison term.
In prison, Wang has suffered brutal treatment, the Yahoo attorney acknowledged in his filing.
Shi, a second plaintiff, worked as a reporter at Contemporary Business News in China and wrote articles advocating political reform. He was arrested in 2004 for publishing a document Chinese officials considered a state secret. He was sentenced in 2005 to 10 years in prison.
A hearing on the motions is slated for November 1 in the U.S. District Court for Northern California in Oakland before Judge Claudia Wilken.
