BEIJING, Dec 19 (Reuters) - A Chinese court has jailed a prominent sociologist for 20 years for leaking state secrets, a sentence that rights groups said on Tuesday was a blow to academic freedom.

Lu Jianhua, 46, a sociologist with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a government think-tank, was convicted by the Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People's Court on Monday, the Hong Kong's Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy said.

His case appeared to be linked to that of Ching Cheong, a Hong Kong-based reporter for Singapore's Straits Times who was jailed for five years this year for spying for Taiwan.

"The heavy sentence is an obvious sign China's political environment has seriously worsened," the human rights centre said in a statement.

Lu's wife, Qu Liqiu, a journalist, could neither confirm nor deny the report as the court had yet to inform her of the verdict. She has been denied access to her husband since he was taken into custody in May last year.

"I don't want to comment because I don't know if it's true or not," Qu told Reuters. She said she had some reservations about the report because the statement said a copy of the verdict had been mailed to the family, going against the practice in China.

A court official, who declined to be named and who was contacted by telephone, denied knowledge of the conviction. State media has also made no mention of Lu's case.

The centre said the court assigned Lu a lawyer on the eve of his 90-minute trial behind closed doors in August. It said the authorities denied a request by his family to hire a lawyer.

ESSAYS

Lu wrote about 70 essays for the Straits Times and the rights group's statement quoted Chinese intelligence officials as saying four of these essays penned in May 2004 leaked state secrets.

The sociologist rose to prominence and appeared regularly on state television talk shows before his arrest. He co-edited a book published annually by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences on the country's social situation.

Several Chinese academics were ensnared in a government crackdown on academia in 2001 and 2002.

Shi Xianmin, an assistant professor at a school which trains Communist Party cadres in the southern city of Shenzhen, was jailed for two years in 2002 for giving a China-born American academic, Li Shaomin, internal government documents.

Li, who taught at the City University in Hong Kong, was detained in China for five months in 2001 and convicted of spying before being deported.

Gao Zhan, a China-born U.S.-based sociologist, was deported in 2001 after a Chinese court convicted her of spying for Taiwan. In a twist, a U.S. judge sentenced her to seven months in prison in 2004 for illegal sales of technology to China and tax fraud.

Xu Zerong, a China-born Hong Kong academic also known as David Tsui, was sentenced by a Chinese court to 13 years in prison in 2002 for supplying several overseas parties with state secrets -- classified reference material on the Korean War. His sentence has been cut by nine months.

And Yang Jianli, a Boston-based democracy campaigner with doctorates from Harvard and Berkeley, was arrested in China in 2002 and jailed for five years for illegal entry and espionage.

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China jails scholar to 20 years for leaking secrets
China jails scholar to 20 years for leaking secrets
SAI
306 字
2006 年 12 月 19 日 16:26
Agence France Presse
英文
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2006 All reproduction and presentation rights reserved.
BEIJING, Dec 19, 2006 (AFP) -

A former media commentator and researcher with a top state-run academic institute has been jailed in China for 20 years for leaking state secrets, a rights group said Tuesday.

Lu Jianhua was sentenced in a closed hearing at a Beijing intermediate court on Monday, the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy said in a statement.

He was found guilty of leaking state secrets by the court in a 90-minute trial on August 16, the center said. Lu was denied the right to choose his own lawyer and a court-appointed attorney defended him.

The Beijing court refused to comment on the case, apparently due to the alleged "state secrets" involved.

Lu's case was linked to that of Hong Kong journalist Ching Cheong who was sentenced to five years in prison in August on accusations of spying for Taiwan, the center said.

Ching has always maintained his innocence.

Over the last several years, Lu had written several articles for Ching's paper, the Singapore Straits Times, including four articles that state investigators said contained "high-level state secrets," the center said.

Lu, 46, is a well-known Chinese scholar at the China Academy of Social Sciences and was a top editor at the academy's series of annual publications covering the nation's economic, social and political issues.

Lu had also been a frequent commentator on the news shows of state broadcaster China Central Television.

"The information center condemns the sentencing of Lu Jianhua by the communist authorities," the center said.

"From what we can gather, ever since Lu Jianhua was arrested he has been denied a lawyer capable of defending him fairly."

Lu was taken into police custody in April 2005.
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Report: Chinese think tank researcher sentenced to 20 years for leaking state secrets
Report: Chinese think tank researcher sentenced to 20 years for leaking state secrets
Associated Press Newswires

(c) 2006. The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

BEIJING (AP) - A researcher at a prestigious Chinese think tank has been sentenced to 20 years in prison on charges of leaking state secrets, a human rights group said Tuesday.

Lu Jianhua was sentenced Tuesday at the Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People's Court on unspecified charges of leaking state secrets, according to a statement from the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy.

The court referred all questions to Beijing's municipal department for foreign affairs, which did not respond to a faxed request for information.

Lu, a researcher in the sociological bureau of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the government's main think tank in Beijing, was detained in April by the National Security Bureau and stood trial in August in a brief, closed-door session.

No details of his case have been released but he has been linked to Ching Cheong, a reporter for Singapore's The Straits Times newspaper, who was jailed by China on spying charges.

"Lu had submitted 70 articles to The Straits Times via Ching Cheong since March 2003," the rights group said. "Chinese state security authorities believed the articles contained state secrets and four articles were classified as top state secrets."

It did not elaborate but China often uses vaguely worded subversion charges to suppress criticism of the ruling Communist Party.

Qin Gang, a spokesman for China's Foreign Ministry, said he had no details on Lu's case but that the country was "ruled by law and the sentence ... must be based on legal regulations."

Lu's family has not seen him since his arrest and was not allowed to see Lu's court-appointed lawyer, the center said.