China sentences two rights activists to over 10 years in prison for "subversion of state power"

Beijing [China], April 14 : A Chinese court has sentenced rights lawyer Xu Zhiyong to 14 years in prison and his long-term partner and fellow rights lawyer Ding Jiaxi a 12-year prison sentence for "subversion of state power", CNN reported citing Ding's wife Luo Shengchun.

Zhiyong has spent nearly 20 years fighting for human rights in China.

The decision on Monday came nearly a month after they were tried separately behind closed doors by a court in Shandong on the grounds that their cases "involved state secrets." Xu Zhiyong and Ding Jiaxi pleaded not guilty to the subversion charges, as per the CNN report.

Xu, 50, and Ding, 55, were detained by Chinese authorities after attending a private gathering with other activists in Xiamen in December 2019. They were permitted to meet their lawyers roughly a year after first being detained. In early 2021, Xu dictated a statement to his lawyers to outline his conviction and visions for a democratic, free and just China as he was not permitted a pen and paper to write it himself.

Xu Zhiyong in the statement released by Luo Shengchun ahead of the pair's sentencing said, "A democratic China must be realized in our time, we cannot saddle the next generation with this duty." Luo said that she was unable to receive a copy of the verdicts of Xu and Ding cases from their defence lawyers, as per the CNN report.

Luo, who lives in the US said, "The lawyers are not allowed to speak to the media and strictly forbidden from sharing the court verdict - or they will have their practicing license revoked." Previously, the duo were jailed for their roles in the New Citizens Movement, an initiative founded by Xu to advocate for civil rights, rule of law and greater transparency into the wealth of officials.

Speaking to CNN, Luo Shengchun said, "They are human rights lawyers and all they did was practice China's constitution and laws. How do you convince the outside world that China is a country ruled by law by handing them such heavy sentences?"

The authorities detained Ding Jiaxi in late December 2019, two weeks after he joined an informal gathering of Xu and other friends in Xiamen to discuss issues about civil society and current affairs, as per the CNN report. In February 2020, Xu Zhiyong was detained in Guangzhou after spending nearly two months in hiding.

While evading arrest, Xu issued an open letter addressed to Chinese President Xi Jinping. He called on Xi to resign, an appeal that was swiftly censored on the internet in China. In his letter, Xu Zhiyong criticised Xi's policies, including the Chinese Communist Party's controls on the economy, suppression of freedoms in Hong Kong and its handling of the initial COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan.

Xu, a former university lecturer with a doctorate in law from the prestigious Peking University, first became popular in 2003, when he raised the case of a university student who was beaten to death in detention in Guangzhou, as per the news report.

His campaigning with several other legal scholars forced the Chinese government to remove a notorious system in which rural migrants were arbitrarily detained, fined and expelled by police in big cities. In 2010, he founded the New Citizens Movement with like-minded activists, including Ding.

The pair were detained in 2013 for their legal activism. Ding was sentenced to three years and a half for "assembling a crowd to disturb public order," as per the news report. Meanwhile, Xu was sentenced to four years in prison. After his release from prison in 2017, Xu continued to raise political and social matters, publishing essays on his personal blog. Human rights groups have called for the release of Xu and Ding.