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WORLD NEWS Thursday 12 July 2018

China sentences veteran rights activist to 13 years’ prison

By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN The Unirule Institute of Eco-
Associated Press nomics, which advocates
BEIJING (AP) — China on for market-style economics
Wednesday sentenced a and constitutional democ-
veteran pro-democracy racy, has been repeatedly
campaigner to 13 years in harassed by communist
prison on vaguely defined authorities. Its website and
subversion charges, one social media accounts
day after releasing the wid- were shut down in January.
ow of a Nobel Peace Prize On Tuesday, Unirule’s land-
laureate after eight years lord locked its employ-
of house arrest. ees out of the apartment
The People’s Intermediate even though the group
Court in the central city of has a lease through 2020,
Wuhan announced the said Sheng Hong. He said
sentencing of Qin Yongmin, the landlord has been de-
whose activism dates back manding the group move
four decades, on its official out, but he suspected Chi-
website Wednesday. No nese authorities were be-
further details were given hind the pressure.
and it was not immediately “It might be that some Chi-
clear who was representing nese ideology departments
Qin in court. In this Dec. 27, 2017 photo, pro-democracy activists hold pictures of Chinese activists Qin Yongmin don’t like our views and re-
On Tuesday, authorities al- and Wu Gan at the central government’s liaison office in Hong Kong. search,” said Sheng, who
lowed Liu Xia, wife of the Associated Press co-founded Unirule in 1993.
late Nobel Prize winner Liu tention, Qin was arrested the corresponding meth- tion, collective punishment “It is fine for them to dislike
Xiaobo, to depart for Ger- most recently in 2015 but odology, which is within of his wife, ill-treatment, our articles and studies, but
many in response to what not tried until May this year. the boundary of his right to and denied due process there should be different
the Chinese Foreign Minis- The 64-year-old became speech,” Ma said. rights reinforces that there voices in society and it is
try called her own request active in the pro-democ- Ma said his firm ceased is still no rule of law in Chi- supposed to be protected
to receive medical treat- racy movement in the late representing Qin on July 10, na,” Eve said. by the constitution.”
ment. Liu had been held 1970s during a time of po- 2017, due to the sensitivity Qin’s sentence also comes The group has published
under house arrest since litical opening, and was of his case. A three-year just a day after the EU and reports that say major Chi-
late 2010. Coming during arrested for the first time in campaign against legal China concluded a human nese state-owned compa-
a visit by China’s Premier Li 1981 in the ensuing Com- activists that landed scores rights dialogue. In a state- nies are unprofitable and
Keqiang to Germany, Liu’s munist Party crackdown in detention has frightened ment sent Wednesday, the receive large public subsi-
release heartened foreign on dissent, according to many lawyers from taking EU said that during the two- dies.
governments and human the group Chinese Human on such causes. day talks, it emphasized Unirule has also champi-
rights campaigners, who Rights Defenders. His sentence is “a remind- the “deteriorating situation oned freedom of expres-
pointed out that she had Reached by phone, Qin’s er that Xi Jinping’s brutal of civil and political rights sion and due process and
never been charged with former lawyer, Ma Lians- crackdown on human in China, which has been conducted symposiums on
or convicted of any crime. hun, called the ruling rights continues,” said Fran- accompanied by the de- sensitive subjects such as
Qin’s sentencing, however, “completely illegal” and ces Eve, a researcher with tention and conviction of the Chinese civil war that
underscores China’s hard a violation of the consti- Chinese Human Rights De- a significant number of Chi- brought the communists to
line against anyone chal- tution’s guarantee of the fenders. Authorities denied nese human rights defend- power in 1949.
lenging the ruling Com- right to free speech. He Qin a fair trial, Eve said, ers.” “Never before has Unirule
munist Party, which un- said the charges appeared proceeding with a hearing Also Wednesday, the direc- been so alone in its fight
der leader Xi Jinping has to relate to writings Qin had in May despite the man’s tor of China’s most promi- for liberty in China, and the
launched the most sweep- posted online and pub- poor health. nent independent eco- rule of law so jeopardized
ing crackdown on civil lished outside China. “The litany of abuses in his nomic research group said by the authorities that or-
rights in years. “It is not a criminal activity. case, ranging from en- it has been evicted from an dered such heinous act,”
Having already spent more He was discussing the road forced disappearance, apartment it used as an of- said a statement on the
than two decades in de- that China can take and prolonged pre-trial deten- fice. group’s Twitter account.q