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China jails ex-general for backing Falun Gong

BEIJING: A retired Chinese air force general who taught many current commanders was jailed for 17 years in a secret court-martial for links to the outlawed Falun Gong spiritual movement, a Hong Kong-based human rights group said on Friday.

The sentence imposed on 74-year-old Yu Changxin on January 6 was among the harshest slapped on leaders of the movement and angered many fellow retired generals, said the Information Centre of Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China.

Yu, a retired lieutenant general who held a rank equivalent to a provincial governor or a cabinet minister, is the most senior of about a dozen people jailed for links to the movement, banned by the Communist Party as an "evil cult" last year.

About 300 Falun Gong leaders face trial, while another 5,000 have been sent to labour camps to undergo "re-education", administrative punishment that requires no judicial process, the centre said. Several foreign members have been expelled.

The government had no immediate comment on the report. Yu's family could not be reached for comment.

Yu, a former ace who went on to train air force pilots, is expected to appeal, the centre said.

The Air Force Command Academy professor was also accused of helping Falun Gong expand its membership and held responsible for the deaths of practitioners who refused medical help when ill.-Reuters