China jails prominent legal activists Xu Zhiyong and Ding Jiaxi
Two prominent Chinese activists, lawyer Ding Jiaxi and legal scholar Xu Zhiyong, have been jailed for 12 and 14 years in prison respectively for subversion, after being held in detention for more than three years.
Ding Jiaxi and Xu Zhiyong were both detained separately in 2019 and 2020 as part of a government crackdown on legal activists.
In 2010, the activists co-founded the New Citizens’ Movement, which campaigns for civil rights and government transparency.
They were first arrested in 2013 for their roles in protests calling for equal social and educational benefits for migrant workers in Beijing.
They are two of China’s most famous dissidents to fall afoul of Chinese authorities.
During their three-year detention, they both allege they have been subjected to torture.
In a submission to the Shandong court, Ding Jiaxi’s lawyer said the 56-year-old had been subjected to music being constantly blasted into his cell. He had also been made to sit upright for seven days straight following his arrest in 2019.
The closed-door trial for both men took place in one day in June 2022.
In response to past criticism about its human rights record, the Chinese government has stated that “only the 1.3 billion Chinese people have a say on China’s human rights.”
A Human Rights Watch spokesperson called for their sentences to be quashed and claimed the convictions were “cruelly farcical.”
The sentences of the activists have drawn attention back to China’s lack of political freedom and highlighted the suppression of dissidents.