BEIJING (Reuters) - China has jailed 37 Falun Gong followers for up to 10 years for disseminating statements downloaded from the spiritual group's Web Sites, the Beijing Youth Daily reported on Friday.
Courts in several districts of Beijing handed down sentences of between three and 10 years on Thursday to 37 defendants who printed and distributed fliers from the banned sect, the state newspaper said.
Most were convicted of "using a cult to obstruct the law" for spreading Falun Gong statements opposing the ban China imposed on the group in July 1999, it said.
One follower, Xue Hairong, got seven years in prison for turning his rented home in Beijing into a small printing factory and producing leaflets from Falun Gong Web sites, it said.
Despite 19 months of an increasingly ruthless campaign to snuff out the Falun Gong and the Communist Party declaring victory several times, the group has continued its protests.
Falun Gong "has posed a tremendous threat to the general interest of reform, development and stability in our country," Qi Huaiyuan, spokesman of an advisory body to China's parliament, told a news conference on Friday.
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One door closed is one door opened
One more memory fades away
Such grand dreams we all have chosen
We lost our innocence along the way
- Rose Bygrave, "Innocence"
PsychoticIckyThing.Com
Courts in several districts of Beijing handed down sentences of between three and 10 years on Thursday to 37 defendants who printed and distributed fliers from the banned sect, the state newspaper said.
Most were convicted of "using a cult to obstruct the law" for spreading Falun Gong statements opposing the ban China imposed on the group in July 1999, it said.
One follower, Xue Hairong, got seven years in prison for turning his rented home in Beijing into a small printing factory and producing leaflets from Falun Gong Web sites, it said.
Despite 19 months of an increasingly ruthless campaign to snuff out the Falun Gong and the Communist Party declaring victory several times, the group has continued its protests.
Falun Gong "has posed a tremendous threat to the general interest of reform, development and stability in our country," Qi Huaiyuan, spokesman of an advisory body to China's parliament, told a news conference on Friday.
Want to learn more? http://www.reuters.com/news_article.jhtml?type=world&Repository=WORLD_REP&RepositoryStoryID=%2Fnews%2FIDS%2FWorld%2FINTERNATIONAL-RELIGION-CHINA-DC_TXT.XML
------------------
One door closed is one door opened
One more memory fades away
Such grand dreams we all have chosen
We lost our innocence along the way
- Rose Bygrave, "Innocence"
PsychoticIckyThing.Com