A man who posted online information about his dead schoolmate's husband, leading to a human flesh search, was ordered to pay 5,000 yuan in compensation to the husband, the Beijing No 2 Intermediate People's Court ruled Wednesday.

Zhang Leyi was also ruled to delete the articles on his website, apologize to husband Wang Fei, and pay 648 yuan in notarization fees, the court said in a press release.

This is the first human flesh search case in Beijing.

The court warned yesterday that user privacy in the virtual world is also protected by law.

Jiang Yan, 31, killed herself by jumping off from the 24th floor of their apartment building on Dec 29, 2007.

Two months prior to her death, Jiang had discovered that her husband was cheating on her. She started writing blog posts named "Migratory bird flying northward".

Two days before her suicide, Jiang gave the blog's login password to an online friend, who passed it on to Jiang's sister. The stories were then spread throughout the web.

Zhang, a college classmate of Jiang who had read angrily about her death, opened a personal website on Jan 11, 2008 also called "Migratory bird flying northward".

On the banner of the website, Zhang announced it was a place to avenge Jiang.

Jiang's relatives and friends began posting articles, which were then picked up by top community websites such as Tianya.cn and Daqi.com.

Wang's company name, address, and phone numbers were also published on the site.

Three days later, Wang and his lover Dong Fang were fired from their advertising company, the Oriental Outlook magazine reported in September 2008.

Wang also started receiving harassing calls at midnight, had strangers scold him for infidelity outside his home, and became the subject of a leaflet hate-campaign in his community.

The family finally stopped publishing articles after Jiang was buried, following a 100,000-yuan cash payoff by Wang.

Wang sued Zhang, Tianya and Daqi at Chaoyang district court in April 2008. Zhang and Daqi were both ordered in December 2008 to pay 5,000 yuan in compensation, but Tianya was spared because it withdrew its articles following Wang's request.

Zhang appealed to the Beijing No 2 Intermediate People's Court, claiming that because Wang's conduct was immoral, his privacy should not be protected by law.

He also said the action of netizens was not a direct result of his website.