Chinese Internet writer sentenced to 12 years

BEIJING, May 16: A Chinese Internet writer was today sentenced to 12 years in prison for ''subversion of state power'' for backing a movement by exile dissidents to hold free elections, his lawyer said.

Yang Tianshui, 45, who has been in custody since last December, said he would not appeal, not because he was admitting to committing a crime but in protest against a trial process he felt was illegal.

''We expected the result, but we are still dissatisfied because he is innocent,'' his lawyer, Li Jianqiang, told Reuters.

Yang is one of several Internet writers and journalists being tried this month, amid what analysts say is a tightening of controls on media and freedom of expression.

Yang was charged after posting essays on the Internet in support of the ''Velvet Action of China'', a movement named for the ''Velvet Revolution'' that peacefully overthrew communist rule in the former Czechoslovakia.

He was also accused of illegally receiving overseas financial assistance and plotting to form provincial chapters of the outlawed China Democracy Party.

REUTERS