China jails Falungong leaders for printing books and posters

ATTENTION - ADDS confirmation from court official

BEIJING, Jan 6 (AFP) - China on Thursday sentenced a husband and wife to six and eight years in prison for printing millions of Falungong books and posters, a court official said.

Wang Hansheng and his wife Xu Xianglan were sentenced by the Wuhan City Intermediate People's Court in the central province of Hubei, an official at the court told AFP.

She said one other Falungong member was sentenced along with the couple, but refused to provide details other than the person was surnamed Zhu.

Xu, charged with "using an evil religion to sabotage the implementation of laws," received a heavier sentence than her husband because she was also chief of the Wuhan Falungong training station, the Hong Kong-based Information Centre of Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China said.

Wang was charged with "setting up and using an evil religious organization to print material."

They are accused of publishing five million volumes of Falungong books from July 1996 to April 1999, and 1.3 million posters, raking in a profit of 10 million dollars, the information centre quoted the court as saying.

State media reported it was the biggest collection of Falungong material and said the couple, who managed the printing company Shenshen Group in Wuhan, also made 580,000 video products and more than 40,000 practitioners uniforms, earning a combined profit of 27 million yuan.

Xu and Wang were sentenced Thursday following a secret trial on December 23.

The information centre said the couple did nothing illegal.

"Selling products for a profit is the standard practice of any business," the centre said in a statement.

China has deemed the publishing and distribution of any material related to Falungong to be illegal since it banned the group in July.

Products from Shenshen Group were sold in 80 cities and counties within 26 provinces and municipalities in China, state media had said.

Reports had also said Falungong founder Li Hongzhi plotted with Wang to "ruthlessly gain profits" from the business, but the information centre said no evidence was mentioned in court of Li's involvement.

Li lives in New York and is wanted by the Chinese government which has accused his group of causing the deaths of at least 1,400 people by convincing them they could cure illnesses without seeking medical care by practicing his teachings.

Falungong -- a spiritual movement based on teachings of Buddhist meditation and high moral values -- has been under attack by the Chinese government since 10,000 members protested in Beijing last April against the arrest of members.

More than 36,000 members have been detained since then. Most of them have been released but thousands are believed to have been sent to labour camps while many group leaders have been sent to prison for more than 10 years.