For the first time in its legal history, Chinese prosecutors have formally indicted two foreigners-- a British and an American couple--on the charge of "Illegally obtaining private information on Chinese citizens" on behalf of British pharmaceutical giant, GlaxoSmithKline.

Peter Humphrey, a 58-year old British national and his wife, 61 year old US citizen, Yu Yingzeng will stand a closed-door trial on August 7 this year, with the court barring family members and foreign and consular diplomats and officials from attending.

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The state-run China news agency, Xinhua, said this IS the first time that Chinese prosecutors indicted foreigners for "illegally collecting information." If found guilty, the couple faces an imprisonment of three years.

The couple has been in detention for over a year now, and friends and family members have been appealing to the Chinese government for "compassion," claiming that the couple's health have been slowly deteriorating as prison authorities refuse to give them medication as they languish in jail.

The couple ran an investigation consultancy on foreign businesses operating in China when they were hired by GSK to investigate following a serious breach of privacy and security related to the company's China general manager.

The couple allegedly acted on a whistleblower's tip on massive corruption allegedly happening in the China Board of the GSK and went on to collect illegal information and data on Chinese officials.

Reports said that while the charges relate to their work for GSK, the couple investigated a huge number of people through illegal means. They have studied household registration information, acquired license plate numbers, questioned family housekeepers, checked on the logs on their entry and exit of China, bought information, snooped into people's corporate files and checked records on their phone calls.

The Legal Daily Newspaper said although the couple spent a relatively large amount of money in collecting the data, they were, in return, amassing "millions of yuan" from their clients every year.

"They bought this information, paying 800 yuan (US$128.90) to 1000 yuan (US$161.12) each time. They took photographs in secret, sneaked into properties, and they used false identities," newspaper reports said.

Humphrey has requested a neck brace for the trial, to be held in the afternoon of August 7,as he said his head "was falling on the left side" but his request was denied.

TagsGSK, Peter Humphrey, Yu Yingzeng, GSK China, private trial