Acclaimed human-rights lawyer, Pu Zhiqiang, a vocal defender of some of China’s leading dissidents, was given a three-year suspended sentence after he was found guilty of posting online material that criticized the ruling Communist party, Bloomberg Business writes.
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The court still convicted Mr. Pu of “picking quarrels” and “inciting ethnic hatred” based on seven social-media posts that criticized government officials and state policy toward China’s Uighur Muslim minority.
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His secretive trial at Beijing’s No. 2 Intermediate People’s Court ended today with a widely-anticipated guilty verdict, but with the sentence suspended for three years.
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The suspended sentence means Pu does not have to serve prison time as long as he stays under formal probation during that period, legal experts said.
Mo said Pu was allowed to be with his wife but declined to disclose Pu’s exact location.
“Pu will not have to immediately go to prison, but he is still not a free man”, his lawyer Mo Shaoping told AFP.
Chinese police officers gather near the Beijing No. 2 People’s Intermediate Court where human rights lawyer Pu Zhiqiang was sentenced in Beijing, China, Tuesday, Dec. 22, 2015.
Pu was detained in May 2014 and was held without charges for one year, during which time his health suffered. “Everyone saves face”, he said.
At a time when the government has clamped down on the Internet and tried to keep Western influence at bay by blocking websites it deems unfriendly, the prosecution appears to have used seven social media posts by Pu to build its case.
Four activists – Zhang Zhan, Wang Su’e, Liang Hongxia and Ran Chongbi – remain in criminal detention after they were detained alongside many others who showed up to support Pu at his trial on December 14.
The lawyer regretted that Pu’s guilty verdict “can only be interpreted as a trend, in which, the [state’s] control over speech has worsened”.
“More than 20 lawyers have been put under secret detention since July 9 this year”, it said, adding that Pu’s colleague Xia Lin has been detained for more than a year. “He also said if there is an opportunity, history will deliver a true judgement”.
Amnesty International said the suspended prison sentence was “a deliberate attempt by the Chinese authorities to shackle a champion of freedom of expression”. Which words are wrong or which are the ones that we can use and the ones that we cannot?
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei rebuffed the concern, saying foreign governments had to respect China’s judicial sovereignty and not interfere.
At least one woman outside the court where the verdict was read was taken away by police in tears as she screamed that Pu was innocent.
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It was unclear the extent of the restrictions that would be placed on Pu, though it is likely that he is to be placed under police surveillance and prevented from speaking to reporters.
