An outspoken Chinese civil rights activist who dedicated himself to chronicling the plight of other dissidents went on trial yesterday on subversion charges.
Hu Jia's (胡佳) case was being tried before Beijing No. 1 People's Intermediate Court, a court official said. Canadian and Australian diplomats who tried to enter the court to observe the trial were turned away. Two local lawyers and friends of Hu also were denied entry after being told the case was "sensitive."
One of Hu's lawyers, Li Fangping (李方平), said he expected Hu would receive a five-year sentence, likely to be handed down next week, on the charge of inciting subversion of state power.
"We think the explanation for this accusation is very unclear. If you apply it to any normal citizen, it can be a way of controlling freedom of expression," Li said on his way into court.
He said Hu was healthy and in good spirits.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao sidestepped Hu's trial when questioned about the activist's persecution at his annual news conference yesterday. He avoided mentioning Hu by name and denied that Beijing was rounding up political critics ahead of the Olympics.
"China is a country ruled by law, and all these issues will be dealt with in accordance with law," Wen told reporters. "As far as the critics' view that China is trying to arrest dissidents before the Olympics there is no such issue at all."
One lawyer, Jiang Tianyong (
"I fear that because there is no media, no independent third party, it will affect a fair trial," he said.
Li said earlier this month that an indictment cited comments Hu made during interviews with foreign media and articles he wrote that were posted on Boxun.com, a US-based Chinese-language Web site that is banned in China.
Boxun.com, based in North Carolina, carries reports and essays on a wide range of issues rarely seen in the Chinese state media, from corruption cases to calls for greater democracy.
Beijing routinely uses the nebulous subversion charge to imprison dissidents for years.
Hu has been a vocal critic of China's human rights record for years. An impassioned AIDS and environmental activist, Hu had been confined to his Beijing apartment in a complex called "Freedom City" for more than 200 days before he was taken away by security agents on Dec. 27.
It was not immediately clear whether Hu's wife, fellow activist Zeng Jinyan (
A friend of Zeng, Zhou Li (
Hu's case has gained international attention, with US and European officials repeatedly raising it in meetings with Chinese officials.
"He was a small man, but he had great strength and spirit," friend Zhou said.
In the sweltering streets of Jakarta, buskers carry towering, hollow puppets and pass around a bucket for donations. Now, they fear becoming outlaws. City authorities said they would crack down on use of the sacred ondel-ondel puppets, which can stand as tall as a truck, and they are drafting legislation to remove what they view as a street nuisance. Performances featuring the puppets — originally used by Jakarta’s Betawi people to ward off evil spirits — would be allowed only at set events. The ban could leave many ondel-ondel buskers in Jakarta jobless. “I am confused and anxious. I fear getting raided or even
Eleven people, including a former minister, were arrested in Serbia on Friday over a train station disaster in which 16 people died. The concrete canopy of the newly renovated station in the northern city of Novi Sad collapsed on Nov. 1, 2024 in a disaster widely blamed on corruption and poor oversight. It sparked a wave of student-led protests and led to the resignation of then-Serbian prime minister Milos Vucevic and the fall of his government. The public prosecutor’s office in Novi Sad opened an investigation into the accident and deaths. In February, the public prosecutor’s office for organized crime opened another probe into
RISING RACISM: A Japanese group called on China to assure safety in the country, while the Chinese embassy in Tokyo urged action against a ‘surge in xenophobia’ A Japanese woman living in China was attacked and injured by a man in a subway station in Suzhou, China, Japanese media said, hours after two Chinese men were seriously injured in violence in Tokyo. The attacks on Thursday raised concern about xenophobic sentiment in China and Japan that have been blamed for assaults in both countries. It was the third attack involving Japanese living in China since last year. In the two previous cases in China, Chinese authorities have insisted they were isolated incidents. Japanese broadcaster NHK did not identify the woman injured in Suzhou by name, but, citing the Japanese
RESTRUCTURE: Myanmar’s military has ended emergency rule and announced plans for elections in December, but critics said the move aims to entrench junta control Myanmar’s military government announced on Thursday that it was ending the state of emergency declared after it seized power in 2021 and would restructure administrative bodies to prepare for the new election at the end of the year. However, the polls planned for an unspecified date in December face serious obstacles, including a civil war raging over most of the country and pledges by opponents of the military rule to derail the election because they believe it can be neither free nor fair. Under the restructuring, Myanmar’s junta chief Min Aung Hlaing is giving up two posts, but would stay at the
RSS