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                  China Jails Three Anti-Corruption Activists

   by VOA News

   A court in central China has given jail terms of up to six and a half
   years to three activists who were part of a group urging government
   officials to disclose their assets.

   The sentences handed down by a court in the central province of Jiangxi
   were the harshest yet in Beijing's year-long crackdown on the New
   Citizens Movement.

   Liu Ping and Wei Zhongping were sentenced to six and a half years in
   jail after being found guilty of "disrupting public order" and "using
   an evil cult to undermine law enforcement." Li Sihua was given three
   years in jail for "disrupting public order."

   That information came from Zhou Ze, a lawyer for the defendants, who
   said the activists must now decide whether to appeal the sentences.

   China has arrested about a dozen members of the New Citizens Movement,
   a loosely organized group that holds occasional dinner meetings and
   debates focused on corruption and civil rights.

   In April, the group's founder, attorney and university lecturer Xu
   Zhiyong, was sentenced to four years in jail. Several others have been
   given jail terms in the past year.

   The crackdown comes even as Xi Jinping, the head of China's Communist
   Party, carries out a campaign to end widespread official corruption.
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   [1]http://www.voanews.com/content/china-jails-three-anti-corruption-act
   ivists/1940263.html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/china-jails-three-anti-corruption-activists/1940263.html