{"id":1656,"date":"2014-06-19T18:09:53","date_gmt":"2014-06-19T18:09:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/?p=1656"},"modified":"2014-06-19T18:09:53","modified_gmt":"2014-06-19T18:09:53","slug":"long-prison-sentences-for-three-new-citizen-activists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/long-prison-sentences-for-three-new-citizen-activists","title":{"rendered":"Long Prison Sentences for Three New Citizen Activists"},"content":{"rendered":"

New Citizens\u2019 Movement activists Liu Ping and Wei Zhongping were each sentenced to six and a half years in prison on Thursday, while a third, Li Sihua, received a sentence of three years. The New Citizens advocate causes such as asset disclosure by officials and education rights for migrants\u2019 children; these judgments are the latest in a series against members of the movement, which has been systematically dismantled over the past year. From Patrick Boehler at South China Morning Post:<\/span><\/p>\n

The Yushui District People\u2019s Court in Xinyu found all three defendants guilty of \u201cpicking quarrels and provoking trouble\u201d. Liu and Wei were also found guilty of \u201cgathering a crowd to disrupt public order in a public space\u201d and \u201cusing an evil cult to undermine law enforcement\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Xinyu verdicts are the harshest reported so far in a nationwide crackdown on the New Citizens Movement that started last year.<\/p>\n

[\u2026] Local authorities in Xinyu have long considered the three \u201cthorns in their eyes\u201d, said Maya Wang, a Hong Kong-based researcher for Human Rights Watch. \u201cThe local authorities have essentially used the current crackdown as an opportunity,\u201d she said. [Source]<\/p>\n

The charges of \u201cusing an evil cult\u201d refer to messages Liu and Wei sent about the trial of a Falun Gong practitioner in 2012. A press release from Amnesty International reported that some of the charges had been changed without proper notice:<\/p>\n

The court changed the charge from \u201cillegal assembly\u201d to the more heavy charge of \u201cpicking quarrels and creating troubles\u201d six months after the trial and just days before the sentencing. This sudden change meant that Liu Ping\u2019s lawyers, Si Weijiang and Yang Xuelin, were only informed of the date of the sentencing two days in advance. This violates the legal requirement of three days\u2019 advance notice, and forced the lawyers to be absent at the sentencing due to other court appearances. [Source]<\/p>\n

The three\u2019s trial in Xinyu in December\u2014their second, after they aborted the first by dismissing their own lawyers in protest\u2014was marked by pandemonium outside the courthouse. Defence lawyers including Pu Zhiqiang, himself recently arrested, reported that hundreds of \u201cgovernment-appointed thugs\u201d surrounded them, shoving and hurling insults. (A subsequent directory from the State Council Information Office ordered that \u201call online news on the case of Liu Ping and the rest [\u2026] especially news related to the comments and actions of their lawyers\u201d be deleted.) The New York Times\u2019 Didi Kirsten Tatlow reported on Wednesday that local authorities had taken a heavy-handed approach ahead of the sentencing as well:<\/p>\n

Local supporters of Ms. Liu, Mr. Li and Mr. Wei were being rounded up and, in one case, kidnapped off the street the same evening the sentencing date was announced, according to the husband of one supporter. That repeated a pattern throughout the trial at the Yushui District People\u2019s Court of potential witnesses for the accused being \u201ctaken off the streets\u201d by officials just before they were scheduled to testify, Ms. Liu\u2019s daughter, Liao Minyue, said in a voice message.<\/p>\n

According to a text message from the husband of one such supporter, Liu Xizhen: \u201cA little past nine\u201d on Tuesday evening, \u201cXizhen and I came back from a stroll on the street and she was suddenly kidnapped by Fu Xiaogang (workplace head) and Zhou Hongbing (a deputy manager)\u201d \u2014 his wife\u2019s superiors at work \u2014 \u201cand a bunch of unknown men. They stopped me from taking pictures and they grabbed Liu, shoved her into the car and went away.\u201d [Source]<\/p>\n

June 18, 2014 9:05 PM
\nPosted By: Samuel Wade<\/p>\n

From\uff1a http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2014\/06\/long-prison-sentences-three-new-citizen-activists\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New Citizens\u2019 Movement activists Liu Pin … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,429],"tags":[430,1357,431],"views":1859,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1656"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1656"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1656\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1658,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1656\/revisions\/1658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}