Former lovers are the most dangerous stalkers and are more likely to harm or kill their victims than stalkers who prey on strangers, British psychiatrists said yesterday (January 14, 2000).

Feelings of anger, revenge and continuing proprietorial concern can make a previous sexual partner more perilous than an unknown stalker suffering from a mental illness. “There is serious violence from people who are psychotic as well, but it is much more common and the risk is much greater in stalkers that have had sexual intimacy with their victims,” psychiatrist Dr. David James told media.

Beijing, Jan 15, 2000 ---

A retired Chinese Air Force general who taught many current commanders was sentenced to 17 years in prison in a secret court-martial for links to the outlawed Falun Gong spiritual movement, a Hong Kong-based human rights group said yesterday.

The sentence imposed on 74-year-old Yu Changxin on January 6 was among the harshest slapped on leaders of the movement and angered many fellow retired generals, said the Information Center of Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China.

Yu, a retired lieutenant general who held a rank equivalent to a provincial governor or a Cabinet minister, is the most senior of about a dozen people jailed for links to the movement, banned by the Communist Party as an “evil cult” last year.

About 300 Falun Gong leaders face trial, while another 5,000 have been sent to labor camps to undergo “re-education,” an administrative punishment that requires no judicial process, the center said. Several foreign members have been expelled.

The government had no immediate comment on the report. Yu’s family could no be reached for comment.

Yu, a former ace who went on to train air force pilots, is expected to appeal, the center said.

He has close ties with many retired Air Force generals who are disgruntled over the harsh sentence, it said in a statement. Many active generals were his former students.

“It has gone too far,” one unidentified general was quoted as saying.

The center said the authorities suspected Yu of masterminding a 10,000-strong peaceful protest outside Beijing’s Zhongnanhai leadership compound in April that shocked the authorities and led to the ban on the group three months later.

Yu had nothing to do with the April protest, but was still arrested in July and convicted on orders from President Jiang Zemin, the center alleged.

The Air Force Command Academy professor was also accused of helping Falun Gong expand its membership and held responsible for the deaths of practitioners who refused medical help when ill.

Falun Gong claims 100 million members worldwide. China puts its domestic membership at two million.