Chinese jailed over e-mail newsletter

September 17, 2001

Political activists in the United States say a Chinese lawyer has been sentenced to three years in prison in southern China for distributing a newsletter produced by American-based Chinese dissidents.

The Free China Movement said Zhu Ruixiang, from the city of Shaoyang, was arrested in May on charges of passing the newsletter, called VIP-Reference, to 12 people.

The journal is usually distributed by e-mail.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service