Jintao jokes .. Yahoo helps lock up his critics ... more details

In November 2003 Jiang Lijun, 39, was sentenced to 4 years in prison subversive activities aimed at overthrowing the ruling Communist Party.

Paris based Reporters without Borders have discovered that Yahoo's Hong KOng office supplied a draft e-mail from Jiang's account citing the verdict by the Beijing No. 2 People's Court they obtained this week.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.

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

The information was listed in the verdict as "physical evidence and written evidence," proof that Jiang and the other activists were planning to "make preparations for organizing a party and to use violence to overthrow the Communist Party."

Yahoo have (with their affiliate Ali Baba) also has been criticized by rights groups by providing information in the cases of Li Zhi and Shi Tao.reporters without Borders tried to meet the Yahoo's executives in California, who at first refused to see them and threatened to call the police. They finally agreed to a meeting, on 10 April, but this encounter did not produce any concrete results.Reportof meeting here

Li, from southwestern China, was sentenced to prison for subversion after posting comments online criticizing official corruption.

Shi, a reporter, got 10 years in prison for sending abroad an e-mailcontaining notes about a government memo on media restrictions.

In February a Foreign Ministry spokesman said China has a right to police the Internet and "guide its development in a healthy and orderly fashion."

The Reporters Without Borders report came as Chinese President Hu Jintao visited the United States. His first stop was Seattle, where he dined with Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates (80% of whosae Windows software in China is pirated) joked ..." joked with Jintao: "Thank you, it's a fantastic relationship. And if you ever need advice on how to use Windows, I'll be glad to help."

The verdict, made available and translated into English by the human rights group, the Dui Hua Foundation, can be downloaded here PDF Alert