BEIJING: A Chinese dissident who campaigned for the parents of children killed

in last year’s Sichuan earthquake was sentenced today to three years in jail on a state secrets charge, his wife said.

Huang Qi, 46, who had investigated accusations that shoddy school construction contributed to the quake’s heavy toll, was found guilty by a court in the city of Chengdu of possessing state secrets, his wife Zeng Li told AFP.

“We will surely appeal,” she said by phone from Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province.

The sentence came just days after US President Barack Obama paid his first visit to China,

during which he raised the issue of human rights, saying the United States believed in fundamental rights for all people.

US ambassador Jon Huntsman also specifically brought up Huang’s case with the Chinese government in the lead-up to Obama’s visit, a US embassy official told AFP.

The sentencing was the second move since Obama’s visit by Chinese authorities against dissidents. On Thursday, Zhou Yongjun, a student leader of China’s 1989 Tiananmen Square protests,

was tried for fraud, also in Sichuan. No verdict has been announced in Zhou’s case.

The nature of the state secrets in Huang’s case was not publicly released.