Prominent Chinese human rights lawyer Xie Yang (謝陽) has been sentenced to five years in prison for “inciting subversion,” the US group Human Rights Watch (HRW) said late on Monday.
Xie, who has defended Christian and pro-democracy activists, was detained in January 2022.
The 54-year-old faced years of surveillance by authorities over remarks judged critical of the Chinese government and Chinese Communist Party.
Photo: AFP
The Changsha Intermediate People’s Court in central China on Monday sentenced Xie to five years in prison for “inciting subversion of state power,” HRW said in a statement published in New York the same day.
His former wife, Chen Guiqiu (陳桂秋), wrote on social media that no defense lawyer was present at the trial and that Xie intends to appeal the ruling.
Xie could theoretically be released in January next year, given the time he has already spent in detention, HRW said.
According to a copy of the 2022 indictment, seen by AFP, authorities accused Xie of being “under the influence of anti-China forces” and “having the idea of overturning the political system.”
“Via his accounts on domestic and foreign social networks” and “interviews granted to foreign media,” Xie made “remarks attacking and defaming the authority of the state, the socialist system and the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party,” the indictment said.
His trial took place behind closed doors in October, HRW said.
“This case not only aimed to persecute a brave human rights lawyer like Xie, but to intimidate all lawyers seeking to protect Chinese people’s rights,” HRW deputy Asia director Maya Wang (王松蓮) said in a statement.
“The Chinese government should immediately quash the conviction” and release Xie “unconditionally,” HRW said.
Xie served nearly two years in jail after being arrested in July 2015 during a crackdown targeting several hundred human rights activists and their defenders.
That campaign, three years after Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) came to power, signaled harsher official attitudes toward dissenters and advocates for democratization of China’s authoritarian political system.
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