Tuesday December 12 1:09 AM ET
BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese court has sentenced a U.S.-based member of the banned Falun Gong to three years in jail for leaking secrets to foreigners, a senior U.S. diplomat Tuesday quoted the woman's father as saying.
Teng Chunyan, 37, had been collecting evidence on the detention in a Beijing mental hospital of members of the outlawed spiritual movement, according to a Hong Kong-based human rights monitoring group.
Her jailing would be an irritant to China-U.S. ties just as the two countries are preparing to reopen a human rights dialogue frozen since last year.
U.S. officials have protested repeatedly to Chinese authorities over the case of Teng, who has permanent residency rights in the United States through a "green card.''
"We will be getting back to the Chinese on this,'' the diplomat, who asked not to be further identified, told reporters.
China has previously expelled Falun Gong "green card'' members, but this was the first time it has put one on trial, further signaling it intends to get tough on overseas Chinese who get in the way of Beijing's harsh crackdown on the Falun Gong.
Several weeks ago, a Canadian Falun Gong member was sentenced to three years in a labor camp, the first overseas adherent to be jailed in China.
Teng, whose husband is a U.S. national, faced up to 10 years in jail on charges of "releasing national security information to foreigners.'' She was arrested in the southern city of Shenzhen in March.
The U.S. diplomat said Washington had hoped for "a benign outcome to the trial, and if not that then a speedy return of Teng to the United States.''
He said Teng's father reported that the Beijing court announced its verdict Tuesday. Members of her family were not allowed to attend the trial.
Chinese court officials were not immediately available for comment.
Falun Gong combines meditation and breathing exercises with a doctrine loosely rooted in Buddhist and Taoist teachings. Practitioners have said some 50,000 followers have been detained and many sent to labor camps without a trial.
The Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy described Teng as an acupuncturist who taught at the New York Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
It said she had e-mailed digital pictures out of China as part of her investigation into reports that Beijing authorities had committed 50 Falun Gong members to a mental institute in January.
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/htx/nm/20001212/wl/religion_china_dc_1.html
Category: Falun Dafa in the Media
