Index: drv_javasax.py
===================================================================
--- drv_javasax.py	(revision 6992)
+++ drv_javasax.py	(working copy)
@@ -185,7 +185,7 @@
         self._cont_handler.startPrefixMapping(prefix, uri)
 
     def characters(self, char, start, len):
-        self._cont_handler.characters(str(String(char, start, len)))
+        self._cont_handler.characters(String(char, start, len).getBytes('utf-8').tostring().decode('utf-8'))
 
     def ignorableWhitespace(self, char, start, len):
         self._cont_handler.ignorableWhitespace(str(String(char, start, len)))