China jailed a US resident for three years Tuesday on spying charges after she exposed the detention of members of the banned Falungong spiritual group in mental hospitals, a senior US diplomat said.
Teng Chunyan, 37, was convicted of revealing matters of national security to foreigners, said the diplomat.
Teng, a New York-based acupuncturist who is married to a US citizen, is the first overseas member of the Falungong to be put on trial in China.
The US State Department last week called her trial on spying charges "deeply disturbing" and urged the Chinese authorities to release her.
Teng was accused of stealing, prying into, buying and illegally providing state intelligence, according to an indictment obtained by the Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy in Hong Kong.
The center said Teng was sentenced at a secret hearing at Beijing Intermediate People's Court on Tuesday following a trial on November 23.
The indictment said Teng led foreign journalists to a village in the Fangshan district of Beijing on February 7 where they interviewed Falungong members who had been detained in a mental hospital.
In March, Teng returned to Fangshan and provided a digital camera for a man to take pictures of Falungong members detained in the hospital, the indictment said.
She later forwarded the pictures to foreign news organizations by email.
An acupuncturist and an instructor at the New York Institute of Chinese Medicine, Teng would use the pseudonym of "Hannah Li" when contacting foreign journalists in Beijing.
China's official media has not reported the case, and foreign ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue Tuesday refused to make any comment.
Teng, a Chinese national who emigrated to the United States eight years ago, has had no contact with family members since she re-entered China in March.
It was only in October that her family was informed that she was being held in Beijing's Banbuqiao detention center.
Teng's father said Tuesday the sentence was harsher than he expected, even though human rights groups had warned she faced up to 10 years in jail.
"I think that this is a little too severe, but my personal opinion is of no use, they will do whatever they want to do," Teng Yuben told AFP.
He said he had no idea how his daughter was bearing up as he had not been allowed into court, and he did not know if she would appeal.
"I have never been allowed to see her. I've come to Beijing four or five times since August staying a week to 10 days each time, but what's the use of staying longer if I can't see her," he said.
Teng's conviction has serious ramifications for human rights groups probing violations as the government now appears to be considering information about its treatment of the Falungong to be a state secret.
Other overseas members of the Falungong movement, including US residents, have been arrested in the past while taking part in protests inside China, but they have been released within a matter of weeks and deported.
Human rights groups believe the government may be trying to make an example of Teng to discourage other foreign Falungong practitioners from coming to China.
Members of the spiritual group follow the Buddhist-inspired teachings of their exiled guru Li Hongzhi, who advocates clean living and group morning exercises that involve traditional Chinese breathing routines.
China has been waging a nationwide campaign against the Falungong movement since it banned the organization in July last year as an "evil cult".
Since then leaders of the organization have been jailed for up to 18 years while tens of thousands of followers have been detained, jailed or sent to labor camps for refusing to give up their beliefs.
However despite the campaign Falungong practitioners make almost daily peaceful protests against the ban in Beijing's Tiananmen Square -- BEIJING (AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
