BEIJING, Aug 25: A Beijing court dismissed charges that a Chinese researcher for the New York Times had illegally leaked state secrets, but sentenced him to three years for fraud, capping weeks of confrontation over citizens’ legal rights.

Zhao Yan, 44, had been accused of telling the US newspaper details of rivalry between Chinese President Hu Jintao and his predecessor, Jiang Zemin, over military appointments in 2004.

The paper reported in September that year that Mr Jiang was likely to retire as China’s military chief, handing over his sole remaining post to Mr Hu — a forecast that turned out to be true.

But in an unexpected turn on Friday, the court said there was ‘insufficient evidence’ for the state secrets charge, which had made Mr Zhao a focus of US human rights pressure on China.

“We maintain that Zhao Yan is innocent but I was surprised. He seemed surprised as well,” said defence lawyer Guan Anping.

The court did, however, find Mr Zhao guilty of fraud, saying that in 2001 he took 20,000 yuan ($2,500) from a village official on the unfulfilled promise of helping him avoid ‘labour re-education’ — a form of imprisonment.

Had Mr Zhao been convicted on the much graver secrets charge, he would have faced 10 years or more in a high-security jail, said Guan.

“The case will stand as a rare example of a (Chinese) court being allowed or instructed to acquit on a charge of the utmost sensitivity”, Jerome Cohen, a U.S. expert on Chinese law who advised the New York Times on the case, wrote in an email.—Reuters