China: Journalist jailed for reports on corruption
last updated Aug 05, 2011
An investigative journalist is required to serve an eight-year sentence after a Chinese court rejected his appeal. Qi Chonghuai, 46, had already been detained four years for reports about corruption among local officials in the city of Tengzhou. Lawyers of Qi claim that the charges were imposed to silence him. The organisation Human Rights in China has suggested the prolongation had to do with Qi’s announcement to the Tengzhou mayor to continue the investigations.
Only two weeks after he was released from his original four-year sentence, the same court retried him and convicted him to eight years in prison. According to relatives of Qi, during the time he spent in detention he was subjected to physical and psychological torture, beatings by other inmates and hard labour in a prison coal mine.
The human rights group Chinese Urgent Action Working Group has filed an urgent appeal on the behalf of Qi with the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights.
NY Times: China Jails Journalist Who Reported on Corruption
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