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Chinese Web Site Operator Sentenced

Posted on: Monday, 19 May 2003, 06:00 CDT

By JOE McDONALD

BEIJING (AP) -- A Chinese computer engineer was sentenced to five years in prison for subversion after politically sensitive articles were posted on his Web site, a court official said Monday.

Huang Qi, 40, was sentenced May 9 by the Chengdu Intermediate People's Court in the southwestern province of Sichuan, the court official said. Huang spent nearly three years in police custody following his 2000 arrest.

The official refused to discuss other details, including why Huang was detained so long before sentencing. The official also refused to give his name.

Also Monday, a Hong Kong-based human rights group said Chinese authorities released a pair of veteran dissidents imprisoned for commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen Square democracy protest.

Authorities in the southern province of Guangdong released Yang Tao on Monday afternoon, the Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy said. Jiang Qisheng was released Saturday from a Beijing prison.

Both served four-year terms.

Yang and Jiang were arrested in May 1999 after calling for vigils to mark the 10th anniversary of the protests. They also organized a signature drive demanding a re-evaluation of the official verdict that the demonstrations were a "counterrevolutionary riot."

At least hundreds of unarmed civilians were killed when troops and tanks smashed their way into the center of Beijing to crush the protests on the night of June 3-4, 1989.

Both men also were imprisoned for months after participating in the 1989 protests. Yang, then a student at Peking University, was one of 21 protest leaders sought by authorities in a nationwide manhunt following the crackdown.

The sentencing of computer engineer Huang followed an April order by a Communist Party leader calling for a crackdown on "enemy efforts," the Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy said.

Huang and his wife started the Web site www.6-4tianwang.com in 1999 as a forum for information about missing people. The site became a popular place for posting articles about politically sensitive topics, including a potential opposition party and the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement, because its name is shorthand for June 4.

Huang's family said Chinese officials told them he could have received 10 years in prison. Huang and his wife said they could not control what was posted on their site.

China encourages Internet use for business and education but lashes out at efforts to use it to criticize communist rule and demand political reform. Authorities try to block access to Web sites abroad run by dissidents and human rights groups.

At least 33 people have been detained for posting political material online, according to human rights groups.

Huang's sentencing followed a secret order issued April 28 by Luo Gan, a member of the party's ruling Standing Committee, to "sternly suppress 'enemy efforts'," the Information Center said. Luo is the senior party official in charge of law and order.

The Hong Kong center said the order reflected government efforts to control information during its fight against severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, though it did not give other details.

SARS has killed at least 289 people on the mainland.

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