The Tokyo High Court ordered Waseda University on Tuesday to pay a total of 15,000 yen in damages to three students whose names were given to police in connection with their attendance of a lecture in 1998 by then Chinese President Jiang Zemin.

The three students were seeking some 1 million yen in damages from the university, which had submitted to police a list of about 1,400 students who applied to attend the lecture on Nov. 28, 1998.

The list included the names, addresses and telephone numbers of these students.

Although the Tokyo District Court and the Tokyo High Court initially rejected the damages claim, the Supreme Court ruled that submitting the list to police was illegal and sent the case back to the high court in September.

In Tuesday's ruling, presiding Judge Shizuka Hamano said: "The disclosure of the list without approval by listed students violated their privacy."

Although the necessity of keeping the information featured in the list secret was "not necessarily high," it was "natural for (the students) to think that they did not want this information disclosed without their permission," the judge said.

The judge ruled, however, that the damages award should be cut to 15,000 yen, saying the three students had applied to attend the lecture with the intention of disrupting it.

The three shouted during the lecture and were quickly arrested. They were not indicted.