Journalist jailed for two years over 'subversion' on websites
A Guizhou journalist has been sentenced to two years' jail for inciting subversion after posting political articles on overseas websites, his wife and lawyer said yesterday.
The Bijie Intermediate People's Court also deprived Li Yuanlong , 46, of his political rights for two years for 'incitement to subvert state power', his lawyer, Li Jianqiang , said.
Li's wife, Yang Xiumin , said her husband was very disappointed with the sentence and would file an appeal within 10 days.
'He was shocked when he heard the sentence. He was not convinced that he was jailed just because he wrote some articles,' Ms Yang said.
Li, formerly a reporter with Bijie Daily, was detained in September and officially charged five months later for publishing essays that criticised government and Communist Party wrongdoings on websites banned in the mainland under his pen-name Yelang, which means night wolf.
The indictment said Li's essays had been fabricated, twisted and exaggerated.
During his eight years with Bijie Daily, Li reported extensively on the plight of migrant and laid-off workers.
Another jailed journalist, Shi Tao , has filed an appeal against a 10-year sentence passed last year, according to the Hong Kong-based Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy.
Shi was jailed for 'revealing state secrets' about the government's preparations for the anniversary of the democracy protests on June 4, 1989.
Both Li and Shi used e-mail accounts, provided by Hotmail and Yahoo respectively, to send out information that later led to their arrests.
Yahoo's Chinese partner company was accused of helping the authorities identify Shi through his e-mail account. Microsoft has denied any involvement in Li's case.
