December 24, 2001

Graduates protest to Premier Zhu as fellow alumni sentenced to up to 12 years, says rights group AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

China has jailed six academics for downloading material on Falun Gong and redistributing it, a Hong-Kong based human rights group said. The six Falun Gong practitioners, including four graduate students at the prestigious Tsinghua University, were sentenced by Beijing's No 1 Intermediate Court, the Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy said. They received jail terms of three to 12 years for "making use of a [term omitted] to undermine the implementation of the law", the group said in a statement, citing relatives and a fellow practitioner at the university.

Among those convicted was Yao Yue, a doctorate student in micro-electronics, who was sentenced to 12 years' imprisonment, and her husband, Liu Wenyu, a doctorate student in thermal energy who was sentenced to three years.

Wang Xin, a doctorate candidate in precision instruments, was jailed for nine years and Meng Jun, a graduate student in electronics, received 10 years, the centre said.

Family members of Yao and Liu confirmed the two had been jailed, but refused to comment out of fear of being incriminated.

Police in Beijing's university district refused to comment, while university officials were unavailable. The scholars were arrested between January and April this year for posting the Falun Gong material on Beijing streets and distributing it on the Internet, the centre said.

A group of 32 overseas Tsinghua University graduates has written an open letter in protest at the sentencing. They have called on Premier Zhu Rongji and Vice-President Hu Jintao, both Tsinghua alumni, to put an end to "the persecution" of Falun Gong followers.

China outlawed Falun Gong in July 1999, saying [it was] the biggest threat to one party communist rule since the 1989 Tiananmen Square democracy protests.

[...]

The banned group's United States-based information centre [...]says more than 1,600 followers have died as a result of abuse in police custody or detention centres.

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