Chinese official jailed for 'leaking state secrets'

BEIJING, Jan 4: A high-ranking bureaucrat in northern China has been sentenced to four years in prison for leaking the government's plan to ban the Falungong spiritual group, his wife said today.

Xu Xinmu, a former assistant director of Hebei province's personnel department, was sentenced on Monday by the Qiaoxi District People's Court in the city of Shijiazhuang, Hebei province, for leaking state secrets, his wife, Xi Ai, told AFP.

Xu, 45, in June gained access to a document released by Chinese President Jiang Zemin in which Jiang said Falungong was a threat to society, the Hong Kong-based Information Centre of Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China said.

Jiang ordered police departments to gather evidence of wrongdoings by Falungong members for use in a crackdown on the group, the information centre said.

At that time, the government had not given any hints to the public that it planned to ban the group.

Xu, a Falungong practitioner, informed the Falungong chapter in Shijiazhuang about the contents of Jiang's document.

The chapter then sent a petition with 13,000 names to Jiang, questioning his plans to outlaw the spiritual movement.

Xu was arrested on July 20 and was not tried until late December.

"The sentence is unfair. My husband did not intentionally leak state secrets," Xu's wife said.