Beijing ( CNN ) Amid tight security , a Chinese court has convicted veteran journalist Gao Yu for revealing state secrets and sentenced her to seven years in prison . Gao , 71 , immediately said she would appeal , her lawyer Mo Shaoping told CNN Friday . After a closed trial last November , the No . 3 Intermediate People 's Court in Beijing had twice delayed handing down a verdict , giving Gao 's supporters some hope that the authorities ' apparent hesitation may lead to her acquittal and release . `` Today 's conviction is mainly based on a forced confession that she had since retracted , '' Mo said . `` This is a totally wrong judgment that does n't respect the facts or the evidence . '' The government had accused Gao of disclosing a highly confidential `` Document No . 9 '' issued by the ruling Communist Party leadership in 2013 to an overseas Chinese-language news organization , according to her lawyer . The document revealed the Party 's ideological battle plan to counter advocates of constitutional democracy , banning public discussions on topics ranging from press freedom , civil rights to judicial independence . `` There is no defense against state secret charges in China , anything the Party or the government want to label as state secrets will be labeled and treated as such -- they can even do it retroactively , '' said Nicholas Bequelin , the Hong Kong-based East Asia director of Amnesty International . `` Her sentencing is in line with the very stern approach President Xi Jinping 's team has taken on dissent , information control and challenges to the Party , '' he added . Beijing police detained Gao in late April of last year -- ahead of the sensitive 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown -- and state broadcaster CCTV soon aired her `` confession '' on national television . Expressing `` deep remorse '' in the video , Gao told interrogators she `` deeply regretted that her behavior had harmed national interests and violated the law . '' Mo , her lawyer , said the authorities had extracted the confession by threatening her son 's safety and released the police video to CCTV without her knowledge . He added the alleged recipient of the leaked document even publicly denied that Gao was his source . An outspoken journalist and press freedom advocate , Gao began her career as a reporter for the state-run China News Service in 1979 and , in recent years , had been writing columns for overseas Chinese-language publications . She was arrested after the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989 and released more than a year later . She was imprisoned for another six years for leaking state secrets in 1993 -- though the government has never disclosed details of that case . Since Xi took power over two years ago , his government has jailed hundreds of activists across China despite rising international concern . `` We are in the midst of one of the most severe crackdowns on human rights activists , '' said Bequelin of Amnesty International . `` What the state used to tolerate , it does n't tolerate anymore . ''
Accused of leaking a document revealing Party 's ideological battle plan to counter advocates of constitutional democracy . Amnesty : Her sentencing is in line with the very stern approach President Xi Jinping 's team has taken on dissent . Gao was arrested in 71 , ahead of the sensitive 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown .