Computer engineer jailed

Beijing - China yesterday sentenced a computer engineer to two years in jail for sending thousands of e-mail addresses to a dissident…

Beijing - China yesterday sentenced a computer engineer to two years in jail for sending thousands of e-mail addresses to a dissident publication, in a case that has broad implications for state control over the Internet.

Mr Lin Hai (30), the owner of a computer software company, was jailed for two years for trying to undermine the state, according to his wife, Ms Xu Hon, who has condemned the sentence as excessively harsh.

Mr Lin was arrested last March and accused of trying to undermine state power by using the Internet to send some 30,000 e-mail addresses to VIP Reference, a dissident publication based in the US.