Xia Lin, a prominent Chinese human rights lawyer, was sentenced to 12 years on fraud charges by a court in Beijing. He is known to defend artist Ai Weiwei and fellow human rights lawyer Pu Zhiqang.
He was also fined 120,000 yuan or $18,000 and given total compensation owed of 4.8 million yuan or $720,000 to fraud victims.
He will be filing an appeal on the charges as he is firm that he is innocent, and to fight the government's efforts to subdue freedom of expression.
"Xia Lin is not guilty. He has decided to appeal the court decision and we will file the appeal in the next few days," said Xia's lawyer, Wang Zhenyu.
The lawyer added, "His sentence is much stiffer than those given to dissidents in other trials that have happened in recent weeks and months in China. The courts are controlled by the Communist party so the verdict was never in doubt."
In an article, Ai Weiwei wrote, "Xia Lin's sentence is no exception. I find it absurd that he was sentenced to 12 years for a loan dispute. This shows that China manifests significant discrepancies on its treatment of justice issues and on its parameters for criminality. Xia Lin is not a corrupt official who embezzled public funds. His fault, if any, related to a private loan dispute."
William Nee, Amnesty International's China researcher, said, "This is certainly not about fraud. That's a smokescreen to cover the government's real intent to go after any lawyer ready to take on high-profile human rights cases. Xia had been involved in many cases and that's why he was given a horrendously high sentence."
Since President Xi Jinping assumed his position in 2012, the government has been cracking down on activists and legal personalities who voiced criticism against his administration.