By Laurie Chen and James Pomfret
BEIJING (Reuters) -A Beijing court docket sentenced veteran Chinese language state media journalist Dong Yuyu on Friday to seven years in jail for espionage, a member of the family instructed Reuters.
Former Guangming Every day editor and journalist Dong Yuyu, 62, was detained by police in Beijing in February 2022 whereas having lunch with a Japanese diplomat, in keeping with an announcement from the U.S. Nationwide Press Membership, and later charged with espionage.
There was a heavy police presence outdoors Beijing’s No. 2 Intermediate Individuals’s Courtroom, with a minimum of 7 police vehicles parked close by. Reuters journalists had been requested to depart the realm.
A U.S. diplomat instructed Reuters that that they had been barred from attending the listening to.
Dong has been detained in a Beijing jail awaiting the decision since a closed-court listening to in July 2023, the press membership mentioned in September.
He repeatedly had in-person exchanges with overseas diplomats from varied embassies and journalists. The Japanese diplomat he met was additionally detained for a number of hours, triggering a powerful grievance from the Japanese overseas ministry.
A Chinese language overseas ministry spokesperson mentioned on the time that the diplomat was engaged in actions “inconsistent with their capacity” in China. The diplomat was later launched.
Dong participated within the prestigious Harvard Nieman Fellowship and was a visiting scholar and visiting professor at Keio College and Hokkaido College in Japan, in keeping with a household assertion in April 2023.
He joined the Communist Social gathering-affiliated Guangming Every day in 1987 after graduating from Peking College regulation college, and was the deputy editor of its commentary part.
He had written opinion articles in Chinese language media and liberal educational journals on matters from authorized reforms to social points, and co-edited a e-book selling the rule of regulation in China. His articles advocated average reforms whereas avoiding direct criticism of Chinese language President Xi Jinping.
His household had initially saved information of his detention non-public within the hope that costs may very well be decreased or dropped however had been notified in March 2023 that his case could be despatched to trial, their assertion mentioned.
A number of press freedom non-government organisations (NGO) have referred to as for his launch. A web based petition for his launch has collected over 700 signatures from journalists, lecturers and NGO staff.
“Dong Yuyu is a talented reporter and author whose work has long been respected by colleagues at home and abroad,” mentioned Ann Marie Lipinski, curator of the Nieman Basis for Journalism at Harvard College. “We stand with many in hoping for his release and return to his family.”
The Australian author and pro-democracy blogger Yang Hengjun was handed a suspended loss of life sentence on espionage costs by a Beijing court docket in February.
