This article is more than 10 years old

This article is more than 10 years old

An American geologist was sentenced to eight years in prison in China today on charges of stealing state secrets by brokering the sale of an oil industry database, in a case which has provoked widespread dismay.

Xue Feng was arrested more than two and a half years ago and supporters allege that state security agents tortured him. They say the database was publicly available and classified only after its sale, underlining concerns about China's broad, opaque and ambiguous state secrets law.

In an unusually high-profile show of concern, US ambassador Jon Huntsman attended the Beijing people's intermediate court for Xue's sentencing. The embassy later released a statement urging China to release and deport the 44-year-old naturalised US citizen.

Huntsman has visited Xue several times and Barack Obama raised the case with China's president, Hu Jintao, when he visited last year.

Xue's defence lawyer, Tong Wei, said the sentence was "very heavy" and that he would discuss a possible appeal with his client. The recommended legal limit is 10 years for all but extremely serious violations. The court also fined Xue 200,000 yuan (£19,500).

Three Chinese nationals were also convicted. Li Yongbo, a manager at Beijing Licheng Zhongyou Oil Technology Development Company, was also jailed for eight years and fined 200,000 yuan. Chen Mengjin and Li Dongxu, who worked for research institutes affiliated with state-owned PetroChina, were each jailed for two and a half years and fined 50,000 yuan.

Chinese-born Xue, who studied in Chicago and lived in Houston, brokered the sale of a database prepared by a Chinese firm and containing detailed information on the mainly state-run Chinese oil industry.

"Both Xue and IHS Energy [the US consultancy Xue worked for] have stated that they believed that the database was a commercially available product. After Xue purchased the database, it was subsequently classified as a state secret," the US-based The Dui Hua foundation, which supports the rights of prisoners, said in a statement.

"This is a very harsh sentence. It's a very sad day for justice in China," added John Kamm, its executive director. "It's a huge disappointment and will send very real shivers up the spines of businesses that do business in China."

Xue came to trial last year at around the time a naturalised Australian, Stern Hu, and three Chinese colleagues at Rio Tinto were detained on similar charges in a case that sparked widespread outrage. They were subsequently convicted of receiving bribes and stealing commercial secrets.

According to draft regulations released by the government this spring, commercial secrets of major state-owned enterprises are deemed state secrets.

Xue's case sparked particular concern because supporters say state security agents tortured him in the early weeks of his detention, stubbing out lit cigarettes on his arms and hitting him on the head with an ashtray.

Jerome Cohen, an expert in Chinese law who has advised Xue's wife, said the evidence was so weak the prosecutor returned the case to police twice, and the court twice returned it to prosecutors. He also criticised the length of the legal process; Xue stood trial a year ago.

Cohen warned of "increasingly apparent, visible signs of lawlessness" in the way the authorities handled cases. He pointed to other recent detentions including that of Gao Zhisheng, a high-profile rights lawyer, who recently emerged after almost a year's disappearance, but vanished again weeks later.

Some believe that the case's low profile adversely affected Xue. It took two years to become public because although he wanted publicity his wife, who lives in the US, feared it would be counter-productive and might have repercussions for her relatives in China. The US state department initially sought to raise the issue behind closed doors.

His wife, Nan Kang, told Associated Press: "I can't describe how I feel. It's definitely unacceptable."

The couple have two children.