Fang Zhouzi's wife sues researcher for defamation

Famous fraud fighter Fang Zhouzi's wife, who has been accused of plagiarism in her master thesis, sued a researcher from the Chinese Academy of Sciences for defamation.

The case was heard by Beijing's Haidian distric't People's Court on Tuesday.

The plaintiff, Liu Juhua, a reporter at Xinhua News Agency, was accused of plagiarism in her master thesis in 2002 when she was studying in the graduate school of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

According to the Beijing Times, Peng Jian, Liu's lawyer, said the defendant, Fu Dezhi, published 218 articles in his Sina blogs from Oct 2010 to the end of 2012 insulting Liu.

Peng said the articles damaged Liu's reputation at her work place and school.

Liu also sued a Beijing web technology company that offers technical services to Sina Weibo.

Liu asked for 300,000 yuan ($48,000) in compensation, an apology notice on the front page of the People's Daily and Sina Weibo.

During the hearing, according to the paper, Fu could not provide proof of plagiarism. Instead, he claimed that he only mentioned Liu in eight articles. The rest of them talked about Fang, Liu's husband, the fraud fighter.

The case is ongoing.