BEIJING - A Chinese court upheld prison sentences of four to 20 years for 15 people who hacked into a cable system to broadcast programs protesting the ban on Falun Gong meditation sect, state-controlled media reported Wednesday.
The sentences, passed on Sept. 20, were among the longest imposed in China's campaign to crush the spiritual movement, which once had millions of followers but was banned in 1999 as a threat to communist rule.
Thirteen of the defendants appealed, claiming their actions had not constituted crimes, the Web site of the People's Daily reported. Another man appealed on the grounds that his sentence was too severe, it said.
The Jilin Provincial People's High Court upheld the verdicts on Tuesday after investigating the original convictions for sabotaging broadcasting equipment and breaking anti-cult laws, the Web site said.
The March 5 broadcasts in the Jilin cities of Changchun and Songyuan marked the start of a campaign by Falun Gong to hack into cable television networks and hijack government satellite television broadcasts to show pro-Falun Gong videos.
Thousands of Falun Gong followers have been detained under a relentless government crackdown, and the group says hundreds have died from abuses in detention.
Chinese officials deny killing detainees but say some have died in hunger strikes or from refusing medical help.