The sentence imposed on 74-year-old Yu Changxin on January 6 was among the harshest in cases on the movement and angered many retired generals, said the Information Centre of Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China.

Yu, a retired lieutenant-general who held a rank equivalent to a provincial governor or a cabinet minister, is the most senior of about a dozen people jailed for links to the movement, banned as an "evil cult" last year.

About 300 Falun Gong leaders faced trial, while another 5,000 had been sent to labour camps to undergo "re-education", administrative punishment that required no judicial process, the centre said. Several foreign members had been expelled.

Yu, a former ace who went on to train air force pilots, was expected to appeal, the centre said.

He had close ties with many retired air force generals who were disgruntled with the harsh sentence, it said in a statement. Many active generals were his former students. "It has gone too far," an unidentified general was quoted as saying.

The centre said the authorities suspected Yu of masterminding a 10,000-strong peaceful protest outside Beijing's Zhongnanhai leadership compound last April that shocked the authorities and led to the ban.

The centre claimed that Yu had nothing to do with the April protest, but was arrested in July and convicted on orders from President Jiang Zemin.

The Air Force Command Academy professor was accused of helping the group expand and held responsible for the deaths of practitioners who refused medical help when ill.

Falun Gong mixes Buddhism, Taoism, meditation and breathing exercises.

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