China jails internet dissidents

2003-05-29 10:34

Beijing - China has sentenced four young Internet dissidents to lengthy jail terms, in what critics of the regime see as an intensified crackdown carried out while the rest of the world is focused on the Sars epidemic.

Beijing's No 1 Intermediate People's Court handed down prison terms of up to ten years to the four, who had posted their views on social issues online.

Jin Haike and Xu Wei were given ten years in jail on Wednesday, while Yang Zili and Zhang Honghai received eight-year sentences, all on subversion charges, said a court spokesperson who declined to give his name.

The four had been detained for more than two years, and the authorities had probably just waited for the right moment to sentence them, according to Frank Lu, a Hong Kong-based human rights campaigner.

"Now the media are paying attention to Sars, not human rights," he said. "China news is 99% about Sars, and there's almost nothing about human rights, so they think it's a good opportunity to deal with the dissidents."

The sentencing of the four came amid what appeared to be stepped-up government efforts to process the cases of other detained Internet dissidents.

Huang Qi, who was one of the first to be arrested for expressing his political views on the Internet, was sentenced to five years in prison for subversion earlier this month.

Huang ran a website that carried reports on dissidents, the separatist movement in northwest Xinjiang region, the banned Falungong sect and the suppression of the Tiananmen Square democracy protests of 1989.

Unusual drama

Wednesday's trial of the four was accompanied by unusual drama, as Xu, a former journalist and editor, struck his head on the judge's desk and fell unconscious, Human Rights in China said.

Xu had to be carried out of the courtroom by six police officers, and after a recess, the judge delivered his verdict, the New York-based group said.

The four were arrested in March 2001 after they established the "New Youth Association," an intellectual study group that discussed China's growing social problems, including rural issues and widening inequality.

They posted reform-minded essays on the Internet, including one entitled "Be a new citizen, reform China".

The case of the four, who were formally charged in September 2001, was reopened last month.

'Brutally beaten'

During Wednesday's trial, Xu, a former editor at Beijing's Consumer Daily, said he had been tortured while in detention, according to Human Rights in China.

"Xu Wei complained to the court that he had been brutally beaten in custody and tortured with electric shock to his genitals," Human Rights in China said.

The sentences showed the Chinese government had learned nothing from the lesson on transparency taught by the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars), which has killed 325 in China, Lu said.

"The four merely tried to push for more open media," he said. "If the media has been allowed to report openly on Sars from the outset, the epidemic might not have happened. Now, new disasters could take place."

The US-based Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the sentences and called for the release of the four.

"It's ridiculous that the Chinese government considers the peaceful expression of one's views a subversive act," said the committee's director Ann Cooper.

"These four young writers have already wasted more than two years of their lives detained in legal limbo."

- AFX