Charles Lieber, professor charged in China case, sues Harvard over legal fees
- Lawsuit says Ivy League school is refusing to pay defence costs and ‘turning its back on a dedicated faculty member’
- Lieber is accused of hiding his ties to the Thousand Talents Plan, which seeks to lure people with knowledge of foreign technology to China
A Harvard University professor charged with hiding his ties to a Chinese-run recruitment programme sued the Ivy League school on Friday over its refusal to pay his legal defence costs, accusing it of “turning its back on a dedicated faculty member”.
Charles Lieber, who was chair of the department of chemistry and chemical biology, was arrested in January at his office on campus and charged in federal court with lying about his involvement in China’s Thousand Talents Plan, a programme designed to lure people with knowledge of foreign technology and intellectual property to China.
Lieber’s lawyer, Marc Mukasey, has promised to mount a vigorous defence and has said that “when justice is done, Charlie’s good name will be restored”.
The lawsuit says Harvard denied Lieber’s request to advance his defence costs, has not agreed to reimburse him at all and is demanding that he essentially “prove definitively his innocence to Harvard” before his trial to get financial help.
“Employees who find themselves accused of wrongdoing rely on their employers’ promises to pay their defence costs,” the complaint says.