BEIJING (AP)--A Chinese court has sentenced a judge to seven years in prison for spreading teachings of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement, a rights groups reported Tuesday, amid a campaign to punish [group] members within government ranks.

Hu Qingyun, an appeals court judge in southern Jiangxi province, was arrested on July 21, 1999, the day the communist government outlawed Falun Gong as a public menace. Hu was charged with running an illegal business that sold 200,000 copies of Falun Gong books, the Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy said.

Hu used his knowledge of the legal system to have some charges against him thrown out, but he was finally sentenced Jan. 10 by a district People's Court in Nanchang, Jiangxi's capital, the Hong Kong-based center said. Hu is appealing, the center said. The court refused to comment.

The timing of Hu's arrest was significant. In the early days of the crackdown, law enforcement agencies targeted for arrest people believed to be [group] ringleaders. In the 18 months since, rank-and-file members by the thousands have been put into labor camps without trial or sent to deprogramming centers.

But in recent months, the government has begun prosecuting people identified as die-hard [group] followers. The Hong Kong-based center also reported Tuesday that on Jan. 29 a court in central Wuhan city sentenced nine people from two to six years in prison for distributing [group] materials they downloaded from the Internet.

Falun Gong attracted millions of Chinese in the 1990s, [...] But the government grew alarmed at the [group]'s popularity and now accuses it of [Chinese government's slanderous words].

In the Netherlands, Foreign Minister Jozias van Aartsen on Tuesday indefinitely postponed a trip to China after Beijing protested an aide's planned meeting with a Falun Gong representative in Hong Kong.

Ministry spokesman Bart Jochems said the Chinese government had tried to pressure Van Aartsen into canceling a meeting in Hong Kong between the Dutch human rights ambassador, Renee Jones-Bos, and representatives of 11 human rights organizations.

One of the organizations was Falun Gong, which is banned in mainland China but remains legal in Hong Kong.

``The minister doesn't believe that his schedule should be changed under pressure from the Chinese government,'' said the spokesman.

China has intensified its media campaign against the meditation [group].

[...] Meanwhile, a visiting U.N. human rights representative in Hong Kong said Tuesday he didn't see any need to hinder the group.

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