BEIJING, March 2 (Reuters) - China has jailed 37 Falun Gong followers for up to 10 years for disseminating statements downloaded from the spiritual group's websites, the Beijing Youth Daily reported on Friday.
Courts in several districts of Beijing handed down sentences of between three and 10 years on Thursday to 37 defendants who printed and distributed fliers from the banned sect, the state newspaper said.
Most were convicted of "using a cult to obstruct the law" for spreading Falun Gong statements opposing the ban China imposed on the group in July 1999, it said.
One follower, Xue Hairong, got seven years in prison for turning his rented home in Beijing into a small printing factory and producing leaflets from Falun Gong websites, it said.
Despite 19 months of an increasingly ruthless campaign to snuff out the Falun Gong and the Communist Party declaring victory several times, the group has continued to protest against the ban.
China says Falun Gong is a brainwashing "evil cult" and has detained thousands of followers in a harsh crackdown.
FALUN GONG FLIERS
Falun Gong recently blanketed mailboxes in Beijing back streets with fliers criticising the government for neglecting poverty and unemployment. The statements also disputed Beijing's account of self-immolations on Tiananmen Square on January 23.
China said five people who made a fiery group suicide attempt last Chinese New Year's eve were Falun Gong disciples inspired by exiled group leader Li Hongzhi. One woman died and four people, including a 12-year-old girl, suffered serious burns.
On February 24, two men from the central city of Kaifeng -- Liu Yun and Xue Hongjun -- were arrested on charges of planning the self-immolations, state television said.
Falun Gong, which is based on elements of Taoism, Buddhism and traditional Chinese meditation and exercises, has denied the five self-immolators belonged to the movement. Group spokespeople say its teachings forbid the taking of life.
CHINA ATTACKS CRITICS
China defended the campaign this week in the face of condemnation from the United Nations and the United States over violations of religious freedom and civil liberties.
Liu Jing, head of a new cabinet anti-cult office, told a news conference on Tuesday that Falun gong "does as much harm to its practitioners, especially the devout ones, as drugs."
He said U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson did not understand the dangers of Falun Gong and the United States was using the issue to interfere in China's politics.
During a visit to Beijing, Robinson had urged China to abolish "re-education through labour" camps which Beijing has used to incarcerate thousands of Falun Gong followers -- as well as political dissidents and prostitutes -- without trials.
The United States, which will propose a resolution censuring Beijing at a U.N. rights meeting in Geneva next month, condemned alleged abuses of Falun Gong followers in a human rights report which said the rights situation in China had worsened in 2000.
Shanghai's Liberation Daily newspaper said this week Washington supported Falun Gong -- as well as Taiwan and Tibet's exiled Dalai Lama -- "to distract China's attention from economic construction and destabilise the country."