Fifteen Falun Gong cult followers were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 4 to 20 years by the Intermediate People's Court of Changchun City, capital of northeast China's Jilin Province, on Friday.

The Falun Gong cult followers were convicted of damaging radio and TV property, and of conspiring to use the cult to undermine Chinese law enforcement earlier this year.

Those sentenced were Zhou Runjun, Liang Zhenxing, Liu Chengjun, Liu Weiming, Lei Ming, Zhao Jian, Yun Qingbin, Zhang Wen, Sun Changjun, Li Dehai, Liu Dong, Zhuang Xiankun, Wei Xiushan, Chen Yanmei and Li Xiaojie.

According to local public security authorities, at about 19:00 hours on March 5 this year, when residents in Changchun and Songyuan cities of the province were viewing regular TV programs, to their surprise, some Falun Gong devotees hijacked the cable TV transmission and broadcast a propaganda program for the evil cult through the use of their own small-sized broadcasting equipment.

Due to the hijacking, two trunk cables of the cable TV transmission network in Changchun were cut off, and subscribers to the network in four districts of the city could not watch cable TV programs as usual. The hijacking also resulted in the suspension of cable TV programs for 210 minutes and left 16,000 people affected by video and audio propaganda by the Falun Gong cult.

The perpetrators damaged TV broadcasting equipment that was under protection of State laws and disrupted the public order of society in a serious way.

According to a police officer named Li Shichang from the municipal Public Security Bureau of Changchun, the Falun Gong devotees involved in the TV hijacking case, also dubbed the "March5 Case", were well-organized, and had financial support and relevant technology, with a clear division of labor. The investigation and ensuing confessions by the perpetrators eloquently showed that the carefully-hatched crime had been engineered by Falun Gong ringleader Li Hongzhi and the headquarters of the cult, and had also received technical guidance from the cult's website.

According to sources with local procuratorial authorities involved in the case, the suspects have violated the Clause One of Article 124 and Clause One under the Article 300 of the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China, and they would be accused of sabotaging radio and TV broadcasting equipment and of negatively affecting law enforcement through organizing and utilizing cults.

(Xinhua News Agency September 20, 2002)