Report: Yahoo implicated in 3rd China dissident case

The journalists' advocacy group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) reports today that newly obtained court documents show Yahoo played a role in the imprisonment of yet another Chinese internet dissident:

Reporters Without Borders has obtained a copy of the verdict in the case of Jiang Lijun, sentenced to four years in prison in November 2003 for his online pro-democracy articles, showing that Yahoo ! helped Chinese police to identify him.

It is the third such case, following those of Shi Tao and Li Zhi, proving the implication of the American Internet company.

(…)According to the verdict, Yahoo ! Holdings (Hong Kong) confirmed that the email account ZYMZd2002 had been used jointly by Jiang Lijun and another pro-democracy activist, Li Yibing.

Link, and here is a PDF Link to the English translation of the court document.

Snip from a related AP item:

Yahoo's Hong Kong unit gave authorities a draft e-mail that had been saved on Jiang's account, the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders said, citing the verdict by the Beijing No. 2 People's Court. The group provided a copy of the verdict, which it said it obtained this week. (…)

Entitled "Declaration," the draft was similar to manuscripts called "Freedom and Democracy Party Program" and "Declaration of Establishment" that were recovered from a computer and a floppy disk owned by two other Internet activists, the verdict said.

Link.

In other news related to China and the 'net: blogger and filmmaker Hao Wu remains in jail. The former Earthlink and Excite employee was detained by authorities in Beijing nearly 60 days ago, but has not been charged with a crime. And to begin his visit to the United States, China's president Hu Jintao dined at Bill Gates' home last night. Image: President Hu with Ballmer and Gates. (Andy Clark/AFP/Getty Images)