Sunday, 13 May, 2001

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A Chinese court has upheld a three-year jail sentence given to a Chinese-born US resident last year for exposing the detention of members of the banned Falun Gong spiritual group in mental hospitals. The Beijing Higher People's Court rejected the appeal and Teng Chunyan was taken to an undisclosed prison to begin her sentence, the Hong Kong-based Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy said.

When she was convicted last December, Mrs Teng - a 38-year-old female acupuncturist - became the first overseas member of the Falun Gong to be tried in China.

She was accused of stealing, prying into, buying and illegally supplying state intelligence.

The US State Department described the three-hour, closed-door trial as "deeply disturbing" and called for her immediate release.

Charges

The human rights centre said Mrs Teng was ordered to spend the first three months of her sentence in what is being described as a "study class" - where authorities try to "reform" prisoners. Her family will not be allowed visits.

During the trial, prosecutors said that she had taken foreign reporters to meet the group members, who were being held in a village in the Fangshan district of the capital, in February 2000.

A month later she returned to Fangshan and provided a digital camera for a man to take pictures of the prisoners, some of whom were on hunger strike.

These images were then allegedly forwarded to foreign news organisations via e-mail.

Although a Chinese national, Mrs Teng emigrated to the US nine years ago.

Example

She is married to a US citizen, but returned to China recently to document the authorities' crackdown on the Falun Gong.

The authorities have been waging a national campaign against the movement, which it describes as an '[Chinese government's slanderous term omitted]', since July 1999.

Since then, Falun Gong leaders have been given long prison sentences. Tens of thousands of its members have also been detained, jailed or sent to labour camps.

Human rights groups believe the government may be trying to make an example of Mrs Teng to deter other foreign Falun Gong practitioners and activists from going to China.

Category: Falun Dafa in the Media