BEIJING: China jailed democracy activist Zhu Yufu for seven years on Friday for inciting subversion of state power, his wife said, ahead of a high-profile trip to the United States by Vice President Xi Jinping.
Zhu was convicted for collecting donations for relatives of dissidents in jail, publishing a poem online urging people to gather and call for greater freedoms and giving media interviews, rights groups say.
He is the fourth known activist to get an unusually lengthy jail sentence in the space of seven weeks, as China enters a sensitive time ahead of a once-in-a-decade leadership transition due to take place in the autumn.
His sentence also comes ahead of Xi's high-profile visit to the United States, which begins early next week.
"My husband was sentenced for seven years for inciting subversion," Zhu's wife Jiang Hangli told. "I am very surprised about the length of this sentence, it's very unfair."
Jiang said that after the verdict was read out Zhu shouted out that he would appeal the sentence.
Calls to the Hangzhou Intermediate People's Court, where he was sentenced, went unanswered.
The US called for Zhu's release. "We are deeply concerned about these reports that he has been found guilty of inciting subversion of state power and sentenced to seven years in prison for writing a poem," said State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland.
Zhu was detained last year as part of a widespread crackdown on dissent that took place in China after anonymous online calls for protests similar to those that swept the Arab world spooked authorities.
He has spent much of the past decade in prison. Between 1999 and 2006, he was jailed for founding a controversial political magazine and served another two years from 2007 after he confronted a policeman who questioned his son
No comments:
Post a Comment