EU, U.S. Demand Review Of Trial Of Chinese Journalist Gao Yu

Apr 19, 2015 07:21 AM EDT

(Photo : Reuters) Gao Yu, one of China's most prominent journalists, attends the opening of a photo exhibition by Liu Xa, wife of Nobel Laureate Liu Xiaobo, in Hong Kong, in this June 9, 2012 file photo. A Chinese court has sentenced Gao, accused of leaking an internal Communist Party document to a foreign website, to seven years in prison, her lawyer said on Friday, a ruling that reflects the sensitivity surrounding the party's inner workings. Gao, 71, who was tried behind closed doors in Beijing last November, was convicted on a charge of providing state secrets to foreign contacts, her lawyer, Mo Shaoping, said. Picture taken June 9, 2012. REUTERS/Bobby Yip/Files

A day after news came out that Beijing's No. 3 Intermediate People's Court sentence renowned Chinese journalist Gao Yu to seven years prison term, the U.S. and EU immediately reacted on Saturday by asking for a review of the trial.

The EU pointed out that the decision came out even if serious doubts were raised on the legal process used. The U.S. not only condemned China's legal proceedings but also asked for the 71-year-old journalist's immediate release, reports AFP.

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Gao was convicted of leaking state secrets - a charge which Gao, one of the 50 World Press Heroes in 2000 recognized by the International Institute, was previously convicted and served a total of seven years in jail.

Besides the question over the court's legal process, Gao's brother pointed out that his sister is sickly and in her 70s. He doubted if she would complete the seven-year sentence, and if she ever does, would be almost 80 when she would be released.

The EU said that Gao's incarceration emphasizes the risks that human rights defenders in China face, including media practitioners as well as bloggers. The bloc protested their prosecuting while "exercising their right to freedom of expression."

Gao allegedly received a copy of Document No. 9 in 2013 from a researcher affiliated with the Agriculture Ministry. She then allegedly transferred the document to Ho Pin who heads Mirror Books, a publishing house in Hong Kong.

Shang Baojun, one of Gao's lawyers, said that the prosecution claimed that Mirror Books published the text of the document in the last two years. However, Mirror Books denied on Friday that it received the document from Gao. It also said the document does not contain economic or military secrets but is only an ideology guide.

Hong Lei, spokesman of China's Foreign Ministry, insisted that Gao's case followed the law. He also dismissed the EU's and U.S. demands for a review of the decision, saying, "This is a matter of China's internal sovereignty."

Because of China's poor record in respecting that freedom as well as actual cases of journalists landing in jail, the group Reporters Without Borders placed China almost at the bottom of the list of 180 nations in its 2015 Press Freedom Index. Beijing was in 176^th place.