China activist who spoke out on quake gets 3 years

Christopher Bodeen, Associated Press Writer 

BEIJING – A Chinese court on Monday sentenced a veteran dissident to three years in prison after he criticized the government's response to the 2008 earthquake that killed about 90,000 people.

Web site manager Huang Qi had been accused of illegally possessing state secrets by the Wuhou district court in the western city of Chengdu, his wife Zeng Li said by telephone.

Huang was detained on June 10, 2008, after posting articles on his Web site criticizing the government's response to the massive earthquake that struck Sichuan province the month before. Huang had also spoken to foreign media outlets about parents' accusations that their children had been crushed in badly built schools, complaints the government has attempted to squelch.

Zeng said no details were given about the state secrets charge, an ill-defined accusation often used by Communist leaders to clamp down on dissent and imprison activists. Because the accusations allegedly involved state secrets, authorities were able to bar Huang from visiting with his lawyer and forbid the photocopying of court documents, rights group Amnesty International said.

Zeng said the court refused to issue a written account of the sentence, leaving her at least temporarily without the necessary documentation to file an appeal.

"And we definitely plan to appeal," said Zeng, who was unable to speak with Huang after the sentencing because he was led directly from the court.

Calls to the court and Huang's lawyers rang unanswered Monday.

Amnesty International called for Huang's immediate release, saying he was being punished merely for helping illuminate the tribulations of families whose children died in the earthquake.

"He should never have been detained in the first place and should be released immediately," the group's Asia-Pacific director, Sam Zarifi, was quoted as saying in a statement.

Amnesty said several supporters who asked to attend the sentencing were turned away and beaten by police who ringed the courthouse. It gave no details and their identities were not immediately known.

Huang has already served a five-year prison sentence on subversion charges linked to politically sensitive articles posted on his Web site.

Since his release in 2005, Huang had supported a wide range of causes, including aiding families of those killed in the 1989 military crackdown on pro-democracy protests in Beijing and publicizing the complaints of farmers involved in land disputes with authorities.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091123/ap_on_re_as/as_china_dissident