A COURT jailed 15 Falun Gong followers for terms of four to 20 years Friday for hijacking cable television transmissions and broadcasting a propaganda program.

　　The chief judge presiding over the “March 5 case” stressed that their sentences had nothing to do with their obsession with Falun Gong.

　　“These cable TV saboteurs were tried and sentenced according to law, not because they are Falun Gong followers,” Chief Judge Zhang Hui told Xinhua after the trial was wound up in the Intermediary People’s Court of Changchun, capital of Northeast China’s Jilin Province.

　　The 15 saboteurs, including Zhou Runjun, Liu Chengjun, Liang Zhenxing and Liu Weiming, were sent to jail for sabotaging cable TV network facilities in Changchun and Songyuan cities.

　　“These saboteurs have committed a gang crime,” said Liu Rongsheng, a procurator from the Changchun People’s Procuratorate.

　　“They have violated clause one of Article 124 and clause one of Article 300 of the Criminal Law of the People’s Republic of China, and they are convicted of sabotaging broadcast and television facilities and of undermining enforcement of the state’s laws by organizing and using cults,” Liu said.

　　According to police officer Li Shichang, of Changchun Public Security Bureau, the carefully-planned crime was supported by Falun Gong leader Li Hongzhi and the headquarters of the cult, and had also received technical guidance from the cult’s website.

　　(SD-Agencies)