Petition case ruling is fake news: Court

A Beijing court on Sunday denied widespread reports that it has jailed a group of officials from Henan province for preventing residents from petitioning in the capital.

According to Beijing Youth Daily, the first to publish the information on Sunday morning, Chaoyang district people's court had sentenced 10 employees of Changge city government to prison terms, the longest being 18 months.

The claim was picked up by almost every news website in China and forwarded more than 2,000 times by users of Sina Weibo, China's version of Twitter.

However, when contacted by China Daily, a court spokeswoman, who asked not want to be identified, said it was "fake news".

She confirmed a case involving city officials from Henan had been heard, but she denied judges had handed down any verdict.

According to reports, in April the 10 defendants, who had traveled from Changge of Henan to the capital, illegally detained 12 petitioners who wanted to report to the central government a grievance with local authorities. 

Police arrested the group in May, and released the 12 petitioners. The detained said they were hit and threatened many times after being stopped petitioning in the capital, the report said.

The court is now in negotiations with Beijing Youth Daily over the printing of an apology and explanation, the court spokeswoman said.

In its report, the paper said the sentences were the first time a Beijing court had punished those responsible for the illegal detention of petitioners.