A Chinese man who worked as a researcher for the New York Timeswas handed a three-year prison sentence for fraud by a Beijing court this morning.
The Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People's Court announced its verdict on Zhao, a Beijing-based civil rights campaigner-turned-journalist, almost two years after he was taken into detention.
But according to the court, there was "insufficient evidence" to convict Zhao of providing state secrets to the New York Times.
His sentence came after a start-stop process of charges being laid, then dropped and revived again. Taking his detention into account, Zhao is due for release in September 2007.
His sentencing came a day after a court in eastern China jailed blind human rights campaigner Chen Guangcheng for four years.
China appears to have launched a crackdown on "rights defenders" - a growing network of lawyers, academics and dissidents seeking to expand freedoms through litigation and Internet-driven campaigns for legal reform.