234 words
11 December 2003
21:38
Dow Jones International News
English
(c) 2003 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

BEIJING (AP)--A former city official in southwestern China who published anti-corruption articles on overseas Web sites was convicted of subversion and sentenced to eight years in prison, a human rights group reported Thursday.

Li Zhi was sentenced by the Dazhou Intermediate People's Court in the southwestern Chinese province of Sichuan, according to the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy. It said Li's trial Wednesday lasted two hours.

His lawyers plan to appeal, the center said. Court officials refused comment.

Li published articles on overseas Web sites complaining about the corruption among top officials in Sichuan, the center said. China is in the midst of an anti-corruption campaign, but the government is also sensitive to any criticism of its rule.

Li was arrested Sept. 3 by state security agents in Dazhou, a city in Sichuan province where he was a finance official.

Activists abroad say the communist Chinese government has detained more than 30 people in recent years in an effort to stamp out online dissent.

China's communist government encourages Internet use for business and education but tries to block online criticism of communist rule. Filters installed by the government bar access to Web sites abroad run by dissidents, human rights groups and some news organizations.

The content of domestic sites is monitored and sometimes censored.