Chinese ex-general jailed for backing Falun Gong

January 14, 2000
Web posted at: 11:25 AM HKT (0325 GMT)

HONG KONG (Reuters) -- A Chinese military court has sentenced a former air force general to 17 years in prison for supporting the outlawed Falun Gong sect, a Hong Kong-based human rights group said on Friday.

The Information Center for Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China said former General Yu Changxin was sentenced by the court after a secret trial for helping to promote the spiritual movement and in connection with the death of a number of Falun Gong practitioners.

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Yu, 74, is a professor at China's Air Force Command Academy.

The Information Center said Yu's sentencing had cause an uproar among some retire air force generals.

The human rights group quoted one unnamed general as saying it was "going too far."

It said the Chinese authorities had suspected that Yu, who has practised Falun Gong since 1992, was one of the masterminds behind a gathering of 10,000 people who surrounded the central leadership compound in Beijing in April last year.

Yu was arrested last July.

The Information Center said the Chinese authorities had sent more than 5,000 Falun Gong members into labor camps without trial and sentenced another 300 followers to jail since September.

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