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Document 3 of 11.

November 13, 1998, Friday

SECTION: Part 3 Asia-Pacific; CHINA; ENVIRONMENT; FE/D3383/G

LENGTH: 329 words

HEADLINE: Court to try first Internet case behind closed doors

SOURCE: Source: 'Ping Kuo Jih Pao', Hong Kong', in Chinese 12 Nov 98 pA24

BODY:
[11]

Text of report by staff reporter entitled: "Case of network trader on subversion charges to be tried behind closed doors in Shanghai" , published by Hong Kong newspaper 'Ping Kuo Jih Pao' on 12th November; subheading as published:

China's first Internet political case will be tried behind closed doors on 26th November by the Shanghai Municipal First Intermediate People's Court. Lin Hai, Shanghai network trader, who provided 30,000 e-mail addresses from various parts of China for the US 'Great Reference' [Chinese: 1129 0639 5072 da can kao], has been charged with "inciting subversion against state power" . His wife, Xu Hong, yesterday released an open letter calling for an open trial of the case.

Lin Hai, 30, owner of Shanghai Zhengfang Software Company, was arrested on 25th March this year. In June, the police demanded that he be charged with "inciting subversion against state power" , which was once rejected by the procuratorate on the grounds of insufficient evidence. Xu Hong yesterday received an indictment from the Shanghai procuratorate.

Stirring up trouble by providing e-mail addresses to foreign publication

The indictment states that from September 1997, Lin Hai, alias "Black Eyes" , collected tens of thousands of e-mail addresses from Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong, and other areas through various channels and provided them in batches for the foreign hostile publication 'Great Reference'to send a large number of articles via the Internet to incite subversion against state power and conduct activities undermining national security. Thus, Lin Hai's act constituted "an offence of inciting subversion" .

Since Lin Hai's case will be tried behind closed doors by the Shanghai Municipal First Intermediate Court, Xu Hong authorized the Hong Kong-based "Information Centre of Human Rights and Pro-Democracy Movement in China" to release an open letter protesting Lin Hai's secret trial and demanding an open trial.

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

LOAD-DATE: November 12, 1998