SHIJIAZHUANG: A Chinese man who conducted an Internet smear campaign that falsely accused his ex-girlfriend of working as a prostitute and spreading AIDS has been jailed for three years.

Yang Yongmeng, 32, was convicted of aggravated defamation and sentenced at the People's Court of Rongcheng County, in Baoding City, Hebei Province, on March 26, an officer with the Baoding Municipal Intermediate People's Court told Xinhua Saturday.

Yang did not appeal the verdict.

A police investigation found that Yang met Yan in March 2008. They soon became lovers and lived together in Beijing, when Yang shot and kept intimate video clips and nude photos of Yan.

Yan said she was breaking up with Yang in June last year and he reacted by printing the video footage and distributing it in Rongcheng, Yan's hometown, in August. He also sent cellphone multimedia messages to Yan's acquaintances.

He opened blogs on websites like Sina.com and QQ.com in Yan's name, uploading private video clips of Yan and claiming she had been raped by her stepfather and become HIV-positive.

Assuming her name, he said she was spreading the HIV virus to new clients each day and wanted to seek fame even by the questionable means of attracting public attention on the Internet.

Yang published 282 mobile phone numbers, saying that they were "clients" of the "AIDS-infected prostitute."

Police had found 157,000 webpages, 6,420 online reports and 735 video clips about the "AIDS prostitute" by October 27, 2009.

Three separate tests conducted by the disease control and prevention centers (CDC) of Rongcheng county and Baoding city and the national CDC last year showed Yan was free of HIV.

The overwhelming public condemnation of Yan soon turned to sympathy after the story was revealed as a hoax.