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The Yangzhou City Intermediate People's Court Friday sentenced Chuck Lee, a US citizen of Chinese origin, to three years of imprisonment plus deportation in the first instance trial.
Lee was convicted of sabotaging television broadcasting facilities in Yangzhou City, Jiangsu Province.
Lee, a native of Yancheng City of Jiangsu in east China who naturalized as a US citizen in 2002, was seized by Chinese police on Jan. 22 this year and arrested on Jan. 29.
According to the court verdict, Lee arrived in Yangzhou City in October last year, where he bought video disc recorders, computerized time switches and other instruments.
With all this equipment, he assembled five sets of TV signal transmission devices and made a spot survey at five places in Yangzhou in an attempt to install them on the local cable TV network.
Lee was seized while on his way to install the illegal TV signal transmitters at about 01:00 on Oct. 22. Later, he escaped and returned to the United States. Lee was seized by the Chinese public security department upon returning to China on Jan. 22 this year.
Lee invited a lawyer introduced by his relatives to defend him and then rescinded the agreement of trust with the lawyer on account of divergence of opinions. Lee then decided not to invite any other advocate.
To protect his procedural rights, the Yangzhou City Intermediate People's Court designated counsel for him. Lee fully used his procedural rights in the court debate and his lawyer also defended him.
The hearing was attended by Lee's relatives and officials of the US consulate general in Shanghai.
(Xinhua News Agency March 21, 2003)
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