China reduces Gao Yu's sentence to 5 years from 7

An imprisoned 71-year-old Chinese journalist has had her sentence reduced to five years from seven following an appeal, her lawyer said Thursday.

Gao Yu appealed her April conviction of leaking state secrets at a closed hearing on Tuesday at Beijing's high court. Her lawyer Shang Baojun said the court announced Thursday that her sentence would be reduced.

Gao, 71, is a well-known government critic who wrote about politics, economics and social issues for media in Hong Kong and overseas. She was one of the best-known intellectuals to have been imprisoned for supporting the 1989 Tiananmen pro-democracy protests. 

During her trial in April, amid a widening clampdown on free speech, Gao refused to admit guilt. She was sentenced to seven years in prison after being convicted of sharing with an overseas news magazine a document detailing the Communist Party leadership's resolve to aggressively target constitutionality, press freedoms and groups that seek to change society but operate outside the party. 

However, the magazine, Mingjing News, has said Gao did not provide the document, and her lawyers said they presented evidence to the court this week that Gao was not the source of the report at the appeal.

When Beijing's high court heard her appeal Tuesday, Gao decided to confess, which is normally seen by courts in China as contrition deserving of leniency; her confession, her defense continued to argue for her innocence, her lawyers said.  

"We of course hoped our defense would have set her free, but the reduction of two years is still a good thing," said her lawyer.

The lawyers are now seeking medical parole for Gao, who is in poor health with heart problems, Shang said.

Foreign governments and human rights groups have denounced the verdict again Gao as politically driven and urged authorities to release the elderly journalist, who is in poor health with heart problems.

The journalist's brother, Gao Wei, said after the appeal verdict that he wished the court had overturned the conviction and set her free.

International rights groups agreed. 

“Allowing Gao to serve a reduced sentence outside prison, though a relief for her, does not take away the glaring fact that her prosecution was a politicized use of the law to punish speech,” said Sharon Hom, director of advocacy group Human Rights in China.

“Gao Yu’s case also highlights serious systemic concerns raised, such as independence of the judiciary and access to justice, during the rigorous scrutiny of China by the U.N. Committee Against Torture earlier this month.”

Gao previously was imprisoned on state secrets charges for more than a year after the 1989 crackdown. She was detained again in April, weeks before the 25th anniversary of the bloody military suppression of the protesters that killed at least hundreds.

Al Jazeera and The Associated Press