China jails Falun Gong members

A Chinese court has sentenced four Falun Gong followers to prison terms ranging from seven to 16 years for hacking into a cable television network and broadcasting information about the banned group, state media said.

The broadcast on January 1 in a district of the south-west city of Chongqing interrupted regular programming for some viewers and ``had extremely bad social effects,'' the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

China's government banned Falun Gong in July 1999 as a threat to communist rule and a social menace.

The four Falun Gong followers in Chongqing were sentenced on Friday by the city's No 1 Intermediate People's Court.

Jin Wei drew the longest sentence -16 years imprisonment on charges of organising and using a cult to obstruct enforcement of the law and for sabotaging television facilities.

Li Xiangdong was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment and two others, Shu Jianqiu and Li Wei, were given prison terms of nine and seven years, respectively.

A fifth follower involved in the broadcast, Liu Chunshu, has died of illness, the report said without giving details.