China sentences scientific researcher to death for selling codes, secret documents
Huang Yu handed over details of 150,000 classified papers for cash, according to state television report
China has sentenced to death an employee at a scientific research institution for espionage, state television reported.
Huang Yu, 41, was convicted of selling over 150,000 classified documents to foreign intelligence agencies, CCTV said.
These included 90 “top confidential”, 292 “confidential” and 1,674 “secret” files which leaked cipher codes for Communist Party, government, military and financial communications.
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“This case would have led to bloodshed and cost lives if it happened in wartime,” the television report quoted a National Security Agency official as saying.
The report did not say who Huang was spying for.
Huang, a computer specialist, joined a research institute in Chengdu in Sichuan province in 1997 that develops China’s cryptographic communication codes and he kept copies of the state secrets he handled.
He offered online to sell military communication codes in 2002 and was contacted by foreign intelligence agencies, the report said.
He invited his family and co-workers to travel to Southeast Asia, Hong Kong and Macau with the money provided by foreign agencies and during the trips he handed over information saved on laptops and data storage devices.
“I bought many insurance policies for myself. In the event that I was unable to return from meetings with foreign agents, my family would have a fortune,” Huang was quoted as saying in the report.
He was caught by the authorities in 2011. As well as imposing the death sentence, the authorities have also seized the money he was given.
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The report did not say whether he had already been executed.
His wife was jailed for five years and his brother-in-law for three for negligently leaking state secrets. Twenty nine of Huang’s co-workers were also punished, the report said.