Name: Shi Tao Date of Birth: July 25, 1968 Nationality: People's Republic of China (PRC) Hometown: Taiyuan City, Shanxi Province Detained: November 24, 2004 Sentenced: April 27, 2005
	SHI Tao, 37, was a journalist and head of the news division at the Dangdai Shangbao (Contemporary Business News) in Changsha, Hunan province, prior to his arrest. Shi, originally from Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, had also written essays for overseas Internet forums. In an essay posted in April 2004 entitled, "The Most Disgusting Day," Shi criticized the PRC government for the March 28 detention of Ding Zilin, an activist for the Tiananmen Mothers whose 17-year-old son was killed during the June 4 crackdown of the 1989 democracy movement. On April 20, 2004, Shi attended a staff meeting at the Contemporary Business News where the contents of a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Central Propaganda Bureau document about security concerns and preparation for the upcoming 15th anniversary of the June 4th crackdown were discussed. That evening, from his office, Shi used his personal Yahoo! e-mail account to send his notes about this meeting to the New York-based Web site Democracy Forum. Shi was detained on November 24, 2004 and tried for "illegally providing state secrets overseas" under Article 111 of the People's Republic of China (PRC) Criminal Law on April 27, 2005. He was sentenced on the same day of his trial to 10 years imprisonment. His appeal was denied on June 2, 2005. "Flies and Tigers, Fish and Bicycles – Some Thoughts on Reading A Harbinger of History (part 10 of 10)"   Disclaimer | hrichina@hrichina.org Copyright © 2005 Human Rights in China.

s="this.blur();">Shi Tao Appellate Brief, [师涛涉嫌为境外非法提供国家秘密罪案二审辩护词], June 9, 2005 [PDF, 184K] (Chinese language only)