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PRC activist gets 10 years
AP, BEIJING
A Chinese court yesterday sentenced a longtime activist to 10 years in prison
for inciting subversion with his online articles urging democratic change, a
heavy penalty that rights groups say shows Beijing¡¦s growing intolerance of
critics of one-party rule.
Liu Xianbin (¼B½åÙy), who has previously spent a decade in prison, was found guilty
of inciting subversion of state power by the Suining Intermediate People¡¦s Court
in Sichuan Province after a trial that lasted a few hours yesterday, his wife
Chen Mingxian (³¯©ú¥ý) said.
The trial comes amid a vast crackdown on activism in China.
Dozens of well-known lawyers and activists across China have vanished, or have
been interrogated, held under house arrest or criminally detained for
subversion. The restrictions may reflect government anxiety about possible
protests inspired by recent events in the Middle East.
Liu¡¦s sentence is heavy. The charge itself carries a maximum of five years¡¦
imprisonment, but courts have the power to impose longer jail sentences if the
offense is deemed particularly grave.
Chen said her husband was calm and composed during the trial and looked
relatively well, but that the judge frequently interrupted Liu and their
lawyer¡¦s attempts to present a defense.
¡§The 10-year sentence to me, because we¡¦ve already been through 10 years ...
[is] a repeat of the painful process, one in which I can only watch and wait
anxiously,¡¨ Chen said.
The Beijing government routinely uses the vaguely worded subversion charge to
jail people it considers troublemakers.
It is not the first time Liu has been accused of it.
An indictment advice issued by the Suining public security bureau points to
articles Liu allegedly wrote between April 2009 and February last year that were
posted on overseas Chinese pro-democracy Web sites.
Liu authored articles that ¡§slandered¡¨ the Chinese Communist Party¡¦s leadership
as ¡§autocratic rule,¡¨ and ¡§on many occasions incited others to subvert the
country¡¦s state power and socialist system,¡¨ the police notice said, according
Chinese Human Rights Defenders, a China-based rights group.
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