Two amateur Chinese computer coders who were jailed after archiving deleted news articles about the pandemic's initial outbreak are set to be released next week after more than a year behind bars, one of their relatives said.

The two men, Chen Mei and Cai Wei, are set to be released on Sunday, said Chen's brother Chen Kun. They were taken away by Chinese police in April last year, AP reports.

He said the Wenyuhe People’s Court on Friday handed down a sentence of one year and three months, to be applied retroactively, on the charge of “picking quarrels and stirring up trouble”.

The vague catch-all charge is often used for politically sensitive cases.

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