A Chinese court earlier this month sentenced three men to jail terms ranging from ten to 13 years for illegally printing dictionaries and textbooks, a statement from the National Office Against Pornographic and Illegal Publications said Tuesday.

The three men, two brothers surnamed Hou and a third man surnamed Jiang, were convicted of printing more than 20,000 dictionaries and textbooks between March 2007 and September this year without the permission of the books' copyright holders, the statement said.

The Hou brothers were both sentenced to 13 years in jail and fined 300,000 yuan (44,117 U.S. dollars) by the Xinxiang County court in central China's Henan Province on Nov. 19, the statement said.

Jiang was sentenced to ten years in jail and fined 100,000 yuan.

The National Office Against Pornographic and Illegal Publications supervised the case as an important copyright violation case.