BEIJING: A court in China on Monday sentenced a veteran dissident, Chen Xi, to 10 years in jail for subversion, his wife said — one of the heaviest sentences given for political charges since Nobel Prize winner Liu Xiaobo was jailed two years ago.
The court in Guiyang, southwest China, swiftly tried Chen and declared him guilty of “inciting subversion of state power”, and said he deserved a tough sentence of a decade in prison, his wife, Zhang Qunxuan, told Reuters.
“When the court announced the verdict, Chen Xi said he would bow to the decision and would not appeal, but insisted that he was innocent,” she added.
“The court ignored all the points raised by the defence lawyer at the trial, so what point is there in appealing?,” said Zhang. Chen Xi, 57, was convicted over 36 essays critical of the ruling Communist Party that he published on overseas Chinese websites, said Zhang. An official at the Guiyang People’s Intermediate Court telephoned by Reuters declined to give any information or to give contact details for the division of the court that tried Chen.
“Inciting subversion” is a charge often used to punish dissidents critical of the Communist Party, and China’s party-run courts rarely find in favour of defendants in trials, especially for political charges. More Reuters
The Communist Party leadership is preparing for a leadership handover late next year, when its long-standing focus on fending off political challenges is likely to intensify.
The long sentence comes days after another dissident — Chen Wei from Sichuan province in southwest China — was jailed for nine years on similar charges of “inciting subversion”. (Reuters)
