.Group: Chinese democracy activist gets 10 years
BEIJING (AP) - The founder of a Chinese group that challenged Communist rule with a call for multiparty democracy has been sentenced to 10 years in prison, a human rights group said Saturday.
Former university professor and judge Guo Quan was sentenced for "subversion of state power" by a court in eastern Jiangsu Province on Friday, the New York-based group Human Rights in China said in a statement.
Guo had been detained numerous times since 2007, when he founded the China New Democracy Party, which he claimed had 40 million members. He was arrested in Nanjing, the provincial capital, last November. His wife told The Associated Press at the time that Guo was taken after dropping his son off at school.
His sentencing comes ahead of President Barack Obama's visit to China in mid-November.
China's Communist Party has never allowed a serious challenge to single-party rule. While other political parties exist, they are not allowed to wield real power.
Guo's lawyer has said Guo was accused of forming an illegal group, recruiting members and publishing articles on the Internet to "overthrow the socialist system in the name of helping the weak."
A former associate professor at Nanjing Normal University and a former judge in Nanjing, he started publishing articles online in 2007 advocating a multiparty democratic system with elections. He addressed them to Chinese President Hu Jintao and Wang Bangguo, China's chief legislator, Human Rights in China said.
Guo has claimed his party had 40 million members including laid-off workers, farmers who lost their land and retired soldiers, but the membership claim could not be verified.
Guo was later fired by his university, Human Rights in China said.
Human rights groups say the charge of "subversion of state power" has been regularly used to curb freedom of expression in China.
"This sentence is indefensible from a legal perspective, because using peaceful and rational means to petition cannot be considered subversion of state power," Guo's lawyer, Guo Lianhui, told Human Rights in China. "Subversion of state power can only be achieved by armed insurrection."
Guo, the lawyer, could not be reached Saturday.
The Intermediate People's Court in Suqian city also could not be reached for comment. A woman who answered the phone at the Suqian police bureau said she was not clear about the case.
Human Rights in China said the time between Guo's trial in early August and the verdict exceeded the one-and-a-half month time limit for a court to conclude a case according to the Criminal Procedure Law.
MyWay
Former university professor and judge Guo Quan was sentenced for "subversion of state power" by a court in eastern Jiangsu Province on Friday, the New York-based group Human Rights in China said in a statement.
Guo had been detained numerous times since 2007, when he founded the China New Democracy Party, which he claimed had 40 million members. He was arrested in Nanjing, the provincial capital, last November. His wife told The Associated Press at the time that Guo was taken after dropping his son off at school.
His sentencing comes ahead of President Barack Obama's visit to China in mid-November.
China's Communist Party has never allowed a serious challenge to single-party rule. While other political parties exist, they are not allowed to wield real power.
Guo's lawyer has said Guo was accused of forming an illegal group, recruiting members and publishing articles on the Internet to "overthrow the socialist system in the name of helping the weak."
A former associate professor at Nanjing Normal University and a former judge in Nanjing, he started publishing articles online in 2007 advocating a multiparty democratic system with elections. He addressed them to Chinese President Hu Jintao and Wang Bangguo, China's chief legislator, Human Rights in China said.
Guo has claimed his party had 40 million members including laid-off workers, farmers who lost their land and retired soldiers, but the membership claim could not be verified.
Guo was later fired by his university, Human Rights in China said.
Human rights groups say the charge of "subversion of state power" has been regularly used to curb freedom of expression in China.
"This sentence is indefensible from a legal perspective, because using peaceful and rational means to petition cannot be considered subversion of state power," Guo's lawyer, Guo Lianhui, told Human Rights in China. "Subversion of state power can only be achieved by armed insurrection."
Guo, the lawyer, could not be reached Saturday.
The Intermediate People's Court in Suqian city also could not be reached for comment. A woman who answered the phone at the Suqian police bureau said she was not clear about the case.
Human Rights in China said the time between Guo's trial in early August and the verdict exceeded the one-and-a-half month time limit for a court to conclude a case according to the Criminal Procedure Law.
MyWay
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