even
execution, Amnesty International said Wednesday.
The London-based human rights organization detailed the cases of at
least 33
people who have been detained or imprisoned for offences related to
their
use of the Internet.
They ranged from political activists and writers to members of
unofficial
organizations, including the Falun Gong spiritual movement, Amnesty
said. It
called on the Chinese authorities to release all those currently
detained or
jailed for using the Internet to peacefully express their views or share
information.
One of the longest sentences has been passed against a former police
officer, Li Dawei, who has been sentenced to 11 years for downloading
articles from Chinese democracy websites abroad. All his appeals had
been
turned down, Amnesty said.
It added that two Falun Gong members detained for Internet-related
offences
had died in custody, apparently as a result of torture or ill-treatment
at
the hands of the police. The movement was banned as a “heretical
organization” in July 1999.
The Chinese government was filtering or blocking foreign websites and
setting up a special Internet police, Amnesty said.
In late August China blocked access to the Google Internet search engine
for
a brief period, diverting users to local Chinese search engines instead.
The Ministry of State Security has reportedly installed tracking devices
on
Internet service providers to monitor individual e-mail accounts and all
Internet cafes are required to register and inform the police about
their
customers.
“Anyone surfing the Internet could potentially be at risk of arbitrary
detention and imprisonment,” Amnesty said. In extreme cases, individuals
who
publish information on the Internet which is considered to be a “state
secret” could even be sentenced to death.
Amnesty said foreign companies had reportedly sold technology to China,
which had been used to censor the Internet.
“As China’s role as an economic and trading partner grows, multinational
companies have a particular responsibility to ensure that their
technology
is not used to violate fundamental human rights,” it said.
Posting date: 28/Nov/2002
Original article date: 27/Nov/2002
Category: Media Reports
