HK academic Xu's `spying' sentence cut by nine months

A Chinese court has cut the prison term of a Hong Kong academic who was jailed on spying charges by nine months, but he faces six more years behind bars, a US-based monitoring group said yesterday.

Xu Zerong (徐澤榮), also known as David Tsui, was convicted in 2001 of passing on secret Chinese military materials. His case came amid a series of arrests of Chinese academics with foreign connections.

The sentence reduction was granted by a court in the southern city of Guangzhou, the San Francisco-based Dui Hua Foundation said. It didn't give a reason for the decision, but Chinese courts often reduce sentences for good behavior or if a prisoner is deemed to be reforming.

Xu's family has asked for his release on medical parole because he suffers from diabetes and high blood pressure, said the foundation, which researches the Chinese prison system.

Xu, 52, was convicted of providing secret materials on Chinese military strategies and information from the Korean War era to an unnamed person from Hong Kong. He also was convicted of selling unauthorized publications in China.

He is now due to be released in 2012, the Dui Hua Foundation said.

Xu's case came amid a wave of detentions of Chinese academics with foreign connections.