They plan to file two formal requests with the Hong Kong government next week. The first is an application for medical parole for the 56-year-old journalist, who is in poor health.

The second request is for Ching - currently held in a detention centre in Beijing - to be transferred to a prison facility in southern China so that his family members in Hong Kong can visit him more easily.

Ching was convicted on espionage charges and sentenced to five years in jail by a Chinese court on Aug 31. Beijing accused him of selling state secrets to Taiwan, a charge that the journalist has denied.

His appeal, however, was rejected by the Beijing High Court yesterday, which upheld the lower court's verdict.

The Straits Times understands that Ching, whose case is a politically sensitive one, could be kept at the detention centre for about a month for various administrative matters to be dealt with.

He is scheduled to be released from prison on Aug 3, 2010, but his family members are hoping that the jail sentence will be commuted by a medical parole.

The veteran journalist suffers from insomnia and stomach pains, and his health has been on the decline since his detention in southern China in April last year.

To qualify for medical parole, Ching would first have to obtain permission from the courts or the Prisons Department to undergo a medical examination at an approved hospital.

Based on the doctor's report, the Chinese authorities will then decide whether he should be released earlier to seek medical treatment abroad.

Asked whether the family is optimistic about Ching's chances of getting medical parole, his younger brother Ching Hong, 47, said: 'That's hard to gauge. There are too many factors beyond our control.

'But we will continue to do what we can to clear CC's name through legal means.''

His lawyers had initially planned to file the two requests in Beijing yesterday. But state security officials disallowed Chingfrom signing the necessary documents when he met his lawyers at the detention centre in the afternoon.

T`he officials gave no reasons for their action, according to Ching's family members who were here to hear the outcome of the appeal.

Mr Ching Hong said he believed the officials were being 'too careful'.

'We will make the applications through the Hong Kong government next week. Looks like that's the only option acceptable to the Chinese government,'' he said.

The Chinese authorities have also not indicated when they will transfer Ching from the detention centre to a prison facility, or said exactly where he will be serving his jail sentence.

One option being considered by the family, the younger Mr Ching said, is to file a formal request with the High Court or the Supreme People's Court to review the legality of the trial by raising questions about the investigation methods used and reliability of evidence produced by the prosecutors.

Ching's lawyers have argued, for instance, that the prosecutors did not provide enough evidence to back their allegation that the journalist had passed state secrets to Taiwanese spies.

Neither did the prosecutors say why and how the information in Ching's possession amounted to state secrets.

But this option - known as filing for a 'procedure for trial supervision', or shenpan jiandu in Mandarin - could be considered offensive as it is tantamount to accusing the courts of being incompetent, according to Chinese law expert Ong Yew Kim.

A more acceptable approach, Professor Ong suggested, would be to petition the Supreme People's Court or even Chinese President Hu Jintao himself to review the verdict.

'However, this has rarely been successful, and the government can again sit on it for as long as they want - even longer than what has transpired so far because it is not a legal procedure,' warned Prof Ong, a former mainland judge who now lives in Hong Kong.

chinhon@sph.com.sg

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY VINCE CHONG