Chinese Court Rejects Imprisoned Newspaperman's Second Appeal (story in Chinese)

November 15, 2004

Citing Voice of America, the Epoch Times Web site reports that a Guangdong Intermediate People's Court has rejected the second appeal of Yu Huafeng, former general manager of the Southern Metropolitan Daily. There had been some hope that Yu and Li Minying might be released or have their sentences reduced following the release of Cheng Yizhong, who was detained at the same time as Yu and Li.

According to a report in Caijing magazine, Yu Huafeng was charged with "taking 100,000 yuan in bribes" and "giving 970,000 yuan (US$117,291) in bribes" to Li Minying, a member of the Nanfang Daily Newspaper Group's management board. According to the report, prosecutors stated that from March 2000 to January 2001, Yu asked two of his employees to get 1.6 million yuan from the Nanfang Daily's accounting department to award five employees in the advertising department. The report claimed 580,000 yuan was divided among Yu and eight members of Southern Metropolitan Daily’s editorial board, and that Yu received 100,000 yuan. The court regarded this as embezzlement of company funds. Yu said that the Nanfang Daily Newspaper Group authorized the 1.6 million yuan. His original sentence of 12 years was reduced to 8 years on his first appeal.