Tang Jingling and Liu Shihui (Photo : Frontlinedefenders.org)
The Guangzhou Intermediate People’s Court sentenced on Friday three pro-democracy activists for seeking the overthrow of the Chinese government. The prison terms ranged from two and a half to five years.
Handed a five-year prison term is 41-year-old lawyer Tang Jingling, while 31-year Wang Qingying was given two-and-a-half years and 44-year-old Yuan Xinting three-and-a-half years, reported Associated Press. The sentencing of the three is considered the most intense crackdown on dissent since the 1989 pro-democracy protests.
The three were detained in May 2014, significantly the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. They were initially charged with creating disturbances, but the charges were eventually upgrade to inciting subversion, a more serious crime. The rights groups say the three were beaten up by police while detained.
The three were among the first signatories to Charter 08, a human rights manifesto that was co-authored by Liu Xiaobo and backed by over 350 activists and intellectuals in 2008. Liu is a Nobel Peace Laureate.
They were tried for downloading, printing and distributing materials on democratic transformation and grassroots organizing. But the court insisted the three men were promoting civil disobedience ideas and were aiming to overthrow the country’s socialist system.
The trial was closed door, according to Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and other groups that are monitoring human rights violations. The Hong Kong Free Press reported that police officers were stationed outside the court where barricades were also placed and the public were kept at a distance for the trial of the three, more known as the three gentlemen of Guangzhou.
Patrick Poon, China researcher of Amnesty International, described in a news release the verdict on the three as gross injustice. “Their peaceful and legitimate work never threatened state security, this is solely about the authorities arbitrarily silencing government critics,” Poon said.
