HONG Kong based journalist Ching Cheong, jailed in China last month on charges of spying for Taiwan, may not hear his appeal in court, according to a media report quoting his lawyer.

He Peihua said the appeal to revoke Ching's five-year jail sentence, lodged Friday, could be passed to a higher court as soon as Thursday, but Ching may not be allowed to attend.

"The appeal will not be heard in court if (the court) believes that there are clear facts and enough evidence, and thinks that the verdict of the appeal will be the same as that in his first trial," He was quoted as saying in the South China Morning Post.

He, in Hong Kong for a university alumni gathering, said the case was to be passed Thursday from the Beijing People's Intermediate Court, which jailed Ching last month, to the Supreme People's Procuratorate.

The whole process could take between a month and two and a half months, He reportedly told the newspaper.

Ching, 56, who was based in Hong Kong and was a China correspondent for Singapore's Straits Times newspaper, was jailed August 31.

He had been held under house arrest for more than a year, and the verdict came after a swift and closed trial.

The verdict said he passed on information, some of it top secret, to two people from a Taiwanese foundation who were in fact deputies of an intelligence agency.

The case attracted international attention, highlighting China's toughening crackdown against foreign and domestic journalists in the run-up to the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

Media groups launched petitions demanding his release.

The case also raised doubts about China's commitment to legal reforms, since Ching was held incommunicado before his closed-door, one-day trial last month.

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