Reuters: China Judge Gets 7 Years for Falun Activities

HONG KONG, Feb 6, 2001 -- (Reuters) A judge in China's southern Jiangxi province and nine students in Wuhan have been sentenced for involvement with the banned spiritual movement Falun Gong, a Hong Kong-based rights group said on Tuesday.

The judge of a provincial high court, Hu Qingyun, was sentenced on January 10 to seven years for "engaging in illegal business", the Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy said in a statement.

Hu had already been held in custody for 18 months, it said.

[...] China's government brands Falun Gong an [Chinese government's slanderous words], and stamping out the group -- whose adherents regularly protest in Tiananmen Square despite a heavy police presence -- has become a top concern for Beijing on the eve of the high profile National People's Congress annual assembly in March.

In a separate case, nine of the group's followers in Wuhan in central Hubei province were sentenced to between two and six years for distributing Falun Gong materials downloaded from the Internet and encouraging others to join demonstrations, the center said.

Those sentenced include Cui Hai and Peng Cong, it said. No other details were available.

China warned on Monday against foreign interference in the sensitive issue of the Falun Gong, days before the Dutch foreign minister was to meet members of the group in Hong Kong.

The group is legal in Hong Kong, which maintained a high degree of autonomy after reverting to Chinese rule in 1997. But Beijing has repeatedly warned [...]