China jails sociologist for 20 years-group

BEIJING, Dec 19 (Reuters) A Chinese court jailed a sociologist for 20 years for leaking state secrets, a human rights watchdog said today, a case that may be linked to a Hong Kong-based reporter jailed for espionage.

Lu Jianhua, 46, a sociologist with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a government think-tank, was convicted by the No. 2 Intermediate People's Court yesterday, the Hong Kong-based information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy said in a statement. His wife, Qu Liqiu, a Chinese journalist, said by telephone she could neither confirm nor deny the authenticity of the report because the court has yet to inform her of the verdict.

Lu did not hire a lawyer.

Lu's case appeared to be linked to the imprisonment of Ching Cheong, a Hong Kong-based reporter for Singapore's Straits Times, who was jailed for five years for spying for Taiwan.

REUTERS MS RK1113