DHAKA: A Chinese court has sentenced a 71-year-old female journalist to seven years in jail for leaking state secrets, in a case seen by rights groups as part of a crackdown on government critics.

Gao Yu, named one of the International Press Institute’s 50 ‘world press heroes’ in 2000, ‘illegally provided state secrets to foreigners’, Beijing’s No 3 Intermediate People’s court said on a verified social media account on Friday.

The prosecution’s case against Gao was reportedly connected to the 2013 leaking of an internal Communist Party communique calling for a harsh crackdown on dissent and warning against Western-style democracy and criticism of the ruling party's historical record, reports the Aljazeera.

Mo Shaoping, Gao’s lawyer, said she was convicted of leaking state secrets by giving the strategy paper, known as Document No 9, to an overseas media group.

The document argued for aggressive curbs on the spread of Western democracy, universal values, civil society and press freedom, which the party considers a threat to its rule.

One of Gao’s lawyers, Shang Baojun, said Gao did not speak during the verdict and sentencing, but told her brother, Gao Wei, that she could not accept the result.

BDST: 1852 HRS, APR 17, 2015
BD