(1/9/01 4:31:10 AM PT)

BEIJING -- Beijing courts on Tuesday sentenced three followers of the outlawed Falun Gong movement to as long as six years in prison for printing and distributing flyers protesting the government crackdown.

Li Jinpeng, sentenced to six years in jail, He Yuansheng, sentenced to four, and Shi Xiufen, sentenced to three, were convicted of "using [...] to destroy the implementation of laws," state-run Beijing Television said.

All three printed and distributed flyers about Falun Gong last year, the report said.

Police in eastern Shandong province also arrested six Falun Gong members who had clandestinely printed more than 200 different types of flyers for public distribution since June, state-run China Central Television said late Monday.

Shandong police refused to confirm the arrests or answer questions about the report.

Falun Gong members protesting the government's 18-month crackdown on the group have frequently distributed flyers during demonstrations on Beijing's Tiananmen Square and other public places.

On Tuesday, the Communist Party newspaper People's Daily repeated accusations that Falun Gong was serving the interest of "anti-Chinese forces in the West."

Falun Gong drew millions of adherents in the 1990s with its blend of Buddhism, Taoism and the ideas of founder Li Hongzhi, a former government grain clerk now living in the United States. Falun Gong followers say the group's theories and meditation exercises promote health and moral living.

Alarmed by its size and tight organization, Beijing banned the group in July 1999 [] It accuses [...].

Meanwhile, the Higher People's Court of eastern Jiangsu province on Tuesday rejected an appeal by four members of another banned meditation and exercise movement who were sentenced to between two and four years imprisonment on subversion charges, a Hong Kong-based rights group said.

The four were among 600 Zhong Gong organizers reportedly rounded up after the group, which like Falun Gong attracted millions of followers, was banned []in 1999. They four were accused of disseminating letters purportedly written by senior police officials that criticized Chinese President Jiang Zemin for the crackdowns on both [groups], the Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy said.

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Category: Falun Dafa in the Media