BEIJING, CHINA - The wife of a Chinese environmental activist called for help Wednesday over the plight of her husband and daughter who she said had been unfairly detained on suspicion of leaking state secrets.

Hu Jianhong said her husband, Sun Xiaodi, 55, a former uranium mine employee and subsequent environmental activist in Gansu, was detained on June 16. Her daughter, Sun Haiyan, 25, was taken from Beijing on the same day.

"I hope the international community, and people who have a sense of justice and conscience, can help free them," a distraught Hu told AFP over the phone from the northwest province of Gansu.

She added police notified her that both were suspected of "illegally providing state secrets and intelligence abroad," a serious accusation in China.

Hu said she had been informed by someone involved in the case that her daughter could be sentenced to re-education through labour.

Her husband could be given a more serious punishment.

For Hu, 51, losing her daughter was proving almost unbearable.

"I am very worried, especially for my daughter... we are not allowed to have any contact with each other," Hu said.

Hu, who said authorities told her she was not allowed a lawyer because the case was political, said her husband was detained after speaking out about alleged fraud linked to China's devastating earthquake in May last year.

Before he was taken, Sun Xiaodi alleged local officials exaggerated the impact of the earthquake in a southern area of Gansu to get more disaster relief funds, Hu recounted.

According to the Chinese Human Rights Defenders group, Sun had also been campaigning to expose alleged illegal activities at his former mine and environmental degradation in Gansu's south since 1988.

He had been detained for eight months in 2005 for his environmental work, the China-based right groups said.

Hu said it was unclear why her daughter was taken into custody. Police in Hu and Sun's Diebu county, Gannan and Gansu's capital Lanzhou refused to comment on the issue. The government in all three areas referred AFP to the police.