BEIJING - A former policeman has been sentenced to 11 years in prison on charges of using the Internet to subvert the Chinese government, a human rights group and officials said Monday.

Li Dawei was accused of downloading 500 reactionary essays from the Web, storing them on a computer and printing them out into 10 books, according to the Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy.

He was also accused of using e-mail, letters and the telephone to contact overseas reactionaries, the Hong Kong-based center said.

Li, a former policeman in Tianshui city in China's northwestern province of Gansu, was arrested last April and brought to trial in May, the center said.

He was sentenced July 24 on charges of subverting state power, said an official at Tianshui city intermediate people's court, who refused to give his name.

Li's lawyer Dou Peixin said the Gansu provincial highest people's court has accepted an appeal from Li, but has not set a hearing date. Dou refused to discuss details of the case.

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