![\"Xinjiang1\"](\"http:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/files\/2016\/01\/Xinjiang1.jpg\")
<\/a>Xinjiang, home to the mainly Muslim Uighur minority, has in recent years seen a security crackdown prompted by clashes in the region that have killed hundreds. \u00a9Goh Chai Hin (AFP\/File)<\/p><\/div>\n
Xinjiang, home to the mainly Muslim Uighur minority, has in recent years seen a security crackdown prompted by clashes in the region that have killed hundreds.<\/p>\n
China says it faces a terrorist threat, while rights groups say restrictions on Islam have created ethnic tensions and that police violence often goes unreported.<\/p>\n
China tightly limits domestic media from publishing information about Xinjiang, and foreign journalists are regularly obstructed while reporting there.<\/p>\n
The 15-year sentence for \u201cinciting subversion\u201d \u2013 the maximum possible for the charge \u2013 was \u201cabout some postings (Zhang) made online\u2026 they were about government policies, mainly in Xinjiang,\u201d Li said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe postings advocated democracy, and opposed dictatorship,\u201d he added. \u201cThe things he did don\u2019t constitute a crime\u201d.<\/p>\n
Zhang received an additional four year sentence on a charge of \u201cillegally providing information to outsiders\u201d, Li said, adding: \u201cHe provided information to foreign media about events in Xinjiang\u201d.<\/p>\n
Maya Wang, a China researcher at Human Rights Watch, told AFP: \u201cIt\u2019s quite unusual to have that maximum sentence\u201d.<\/p>\n
The verdict is more than the 11-year jailing given to writer Liu Xiaobo in 2009 on the same charge, over a petition calling for democratic reforms. Liu was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize a year later.<\/p>\n
The Communist Party does not tolerate open challenges to its right to rule, and President Xi Jinping has overseen a crackdown on activists since coming to power in 2012.<\/p>\n
A court in Urumqi jailed Uighur academic Ilham Tohti for life for \u201cseparatism\u201d in 2104 over a website he ran that was often critical of official ethnic policies.<\/p>\n
Zhang\u2019s sentence comes in the same month that China formally arrested more than 10 human rights lawyers and legal staff on \u201cstate-subversion\u201d related charges.<\/p>\n
The Xinjiang court declined to comment when contacted by AFP.<\/p>\n
Zhang\u2019s lawyer Li added: \u201cThe sentence is very heavy. But in Xinjiang verdicts are always stronger than in the rest of the country\u201d.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Chinese paramilitary police prepare to ride in trucks during a ‘show of force’ ceremony in Urumqi in 2013 \u00a9Mark Ralston (AFP\/File)<\/p><\/div>\n
Source: http:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/wires\/afp\/article-3411833\/China-jails-Xinjiang-democracy-activist-19-years-lawyer.html<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Afp China has jailed an activist in i … Continue reading