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Chinese Woman Who Faced Sterilization Seeks Asylum

MIAMI (CBS4) -- A Chinese woman who faced forced sterilization after the birth of her second child is now seeking asylum in the United States after prosecutors decided to drop a passport fraud charge.

According to CBS4 news partner the Miami Herald, Zuo Mei Ke and five other people arrived with false Japanese passports on a cruise ship in Fort Lauderdale. Last week the U.S. attorney's office decided to dismiss an indictment against Ke and another Chinese woman claiming religious persecution.

Ke's attorney, Richard Docobo, said his client was subject to forced sterilization.

According to Docobo, doctors and nurses tried to force Ke to sign a document authorizing them to sterilize her after the birth of her second child. She refused.

Congress passed a law in 1996 that grants asylum to people facing forced sterilization.

 

(© 2011 The Associated Press and the Miami Herald. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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