By Benjamin Kang Lim

BEIJING, Dec 15 (Reuter) - The brother of veteran dissident Wei Jingsheng, who China has returned to prison for subversion, pledged on Friday to dispute the evidence that convicted Wei in a move that could land him in jail as well.

Wei, 45, a 1995 Nobel Peace Prize nominee widely regarded as the father of China's modern democracy movement, was convicted on Wednesday of conspiring to subvert the government and jailed for 14 years -- sparking international outrage.

The Beijing Number One Intermediate People's Court convicted Wei among other things of setting up a firm in Hong Kong under his younger brother's name to raise funds and finance activities of China's democracy movement, state media said.

Wei Xiaotao, a 43-year-old businessman, said he would meet court officials on Friday and dispute the evidence.

"Not one piece of evidence (against Wei Jingsheng) is tenable," the brother told Reuters hours before going to the court in Babaoshan on Beijing's western outskirts.

The younger Wei said he and a Hong Kong reporter established the company in question, Lifeway Co Ltd, in March 1993, six months before Wei Jingsheng was paroled.

Wei Jingsheng "supported the democracy movement but only through non-violent means and within the limits permitted by law," the brother said.

He denied that Lifeway, a trading company, had financed the democracy movement. Court officials declined to comment.

Asked if he now risked imprisonment by admitting the company was his and not his brother's, Wei Xiaotao said: "I don't care. They can do whatever they want."

"I expect them to take me in sooner or later," said Wei, who has been tailed by plainclothes police before and since the trial.

Wei said he was worried about his brother's deteriorating health. The dissident fell ill during Wednesday's trial and was given blood-pressure medication during a 30-minute break.

"He's been locked up for 14 years. ... He won't be able to hold out for another 14 years," the brother said. "He has heart disease and high blood pressure."

Wei Jingsheng was first imprisoned in 1979 for "counter-revolutionary incitement," advocating democratic change and passing military secrets to a foreign reporter.

China paroled Wei Jingsheng in September 1993, six months before the end of his 15-year sentence. He vanished into legal limbo in April 1994 after meeting a U.S. human rights official.

China was tightlipped about Wei's whereabouts until last month, when it announced the charge of subversion.

Condemnation of Wei's conviction has poured in from around the world, prompting Beijing to denounce what it called "foreign interference in China's internal affairs."

Wei Xiaotao said Wednesday's trial, which he attended, was a farce. "Not even one witness was summoned," he said. "His crime was to say what he thought."

About 30 minutes after Wei's defence ended, the presiding judge read from a five-page typewritten verdict, which the brother said obviously had been prepared in advance.

"It takes more than 30 minutes to concoct and type a five-page verdict," he said. "We're merely puppets."

At the trial, prosecutors repeatedly demanded that the tribunal halt Wei Jingsheng's defence, saying he was attacking and sullying the ruling Communist Party, the brother said.

The tribunal did not interrupt Wei's defence, he said.

The brother denied a court ruling that Wei Jingsheng supported independence for Tibet.