(CPJ/IFEX) – CPJ is outraged over the two-year prison sentence given on 20 January 1999 to Lin Hai, a software entrepreneur who was tried in December 1998 in Shanghai on charges of attempting to overthrow the state by providing e-mail addresses to a dissident on-line Chinese magazine. **Updates IFEX alert of 9 December 1998** Lin […]
(CPJ/IFEX) – CPJ is outraged over the two-year prison sentence given on 20
January 1999 to Lin Hai, a software entrepreneur who was tried in December
1998 in Shanghai on charges of attempting to overthrow the state by
providing e-mail addresses to a dissident on-line Chinese magazine.
**Updates IFEX alert of 9 December 1998**
Lin was accused of “inciting the overthrow of state power” by giving 30,000
e-mail addresses of Chinese residents to VIP Reference, an online magazine
published in the United States that supports democratic reform in China. He
is the first person imprisoned in China on charges of subversion growing out
of Internet use.
Lin’s wife, Xu Hong, was in the Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate Court for the
sentencing but wasn’t allowed to talk to her husband, according to wire
service reports. She has been barred from seeing Lin since his arrest and
detention on 25 March 1998. Likewise, his four-hour trial on 4 December was
closed to the public.
Recommended Action
Send appeals to the President:
extreme
encourage modernisation and technological development
represented by unfettered access to the Internet and other forms of media
that China is afraid of information and not strong enough to tolerate
freedom
reverse
the dangerous course of action represented by the prosecution of Lin
Appeals To
Jiang Zemin
President, State Council
Beijing 100032
People’s Republic of China
Fax: +86 10 6512 5810
Please copy appeals to the source if possible.
