China court jails foreign husband-wife duo for illegal procurement of private data

A court in Shanghai has reportedly convicted and sentenced a British citizen and his Chinese-American wife to prison terms on charges of illegally obtaining private data of Chinese citizens.

According to China Daily, Peter Humphrey, 58, and his wife Yu Yingzeng, 61, were accused of being entrusted by Chinese and foreign clients to obtain background information from April 2009 to July 2013 through a consulting firm registered in Shanghai.

The husband-wife duo has five days to appeal against the verdict.

Prosecutors say at least 256 items of private information, including citizens' household registration data, entry-and-exit records and cellphone records, were bought by the pair from three sources - Liu Hong, Cai Zhicheng and Zhou Hong-bo - who are facing separate investigations.

The prosecution added that the couple paid between 800 and 2,000 yuan for each item and then sold the information in their investigation reports to clients.

This is the first case where foreigners have been prosecuted for their involvement in carrying out an illegal investigation.