Originally posted by the Voice of America.
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China'¯'¯Rights Lawyer Sentenced to 4 Years Following Secret Trial

Yibing Feng

   BEIJING - Prominent Chinese human rights lawyer Yu Wensheng has been
   sentenced to four years in prison on charges of inciting subversion of
   state power.

   Yu was detained in January 2018, hours after he provided journalists
   with a letter calling for constitutional reform.

   "This is a secret trial," Yu's wife Xu Yan told VOA Wednesday. "They
   didn't tell me anything earlier regarding the legal procedure, I was
   'informed' of the decision today."

   She added that during the whole time Yu remained in detention, only his
   defense lawyer was allowed to meet with him twice. She had only seen a
   video of her husband since 2018.

   Nicholas Bequelin, Amnesty International's Asia-Pacific Regional
   Director, said that Yu's sentencing is nothing but a political
   persecution dressed up as legal process.

   "Not only was Yu prosecuted under baseless charges for the lawful and
   legitimate work he was conducting as a lawyer, his own lawyer was not
   even permitted to attend the sentencing hearing," he said in a
   [1]statement.

   He added that the secret sentencing once again illustrates the Chinese
   government's zero-tolerance policy towards critics and called for
   immediate and unconditional release of Yu.

   Yu has been a persistent voice for reforms in China. Despite the
   country's increasing severe crackdown on civil society since 2015, the
   lawyer has represented fellow human rights lawyer Wang Quanzhangand
   Falun Gong practitioners, among others.

   In early 2018, Yu had circulated an open letter calling for five
   reforms to China's constitution, including the institution of
   multi-candidate presidential elections.

   "Designating the nation's president, as head of state, through a single
   party election has no meaning as an election," he wrote. "It has no
   power to win confidence from the nation, civil society, or the world's
   various countries."

   It is this call for democracy that resulted in his sentence.

References

   1. https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2020/06/china-human-rights-lawyer-unjustly-jailed-after-secret-trial-must-be-released/

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