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| Pu Zhiqiang trial: Chinese human rights lawyer given three-year suspended sentence | Pu Zhiqiang trial: Chinese human rights lawyer given three-year suspended sentence |
| (about 2 hours later) | |
| Nineteen months after he was seized by police during a major Communist party crackdown on dissent, Chinese free speech champion and Tiananmen survivor Pu Zhiqiang is set to be unexpectedly released after he was handed a three year suspended sentence on Tuesday morning. | |
| “He can go home now,” his lawyer, Mo Shaoping, told the Guardian. “He is doing the paper work at the detention centre and then he can go home.” | |
| Related: Scuffles outside Beijing court as human rights lawyer Pu Zhiqiang goes on trial | Related: Scuffles outside Beijing court as human rights lawyer Pu Zhiqiang goes on trial |
| Pu, a 50-year-old civil rights lawyer, was detained in May 2014 after attending a seminar remembering the victims of the 1989 massacre in Beijing. | |
| He was subsequently charged with “inciting ethnic hatred” and “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” – accusations relating to a series of acerbic messages he had posted on Weibo, China’s answer to Twitter. | He was subsequently charged with “inciting ethnic hatred” and “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” – accusations relating to a series of acerbic messages he had posted on Weibo, China’s answer to Twitter. |
| On Tuesday, Beijing’s No 2 intermediate people’s court found Pu guilty of those charges and handed him a three year suspended sentence, according to The People’s Daily, the Communist Party’s official mouthpiece. | |
| Mo, Pu’s lawyer, said he continued to dispute those charges but would not appeal the verdict. | |
| Pu had faced a maximum jail sentence of eight years for his alleged crimes and the verdict was less harsh than feared, something some attributed to the widespread international condemnation of China’s treatment of the lawyer. | |
| News of Pu’s imminent release was welcomed by some supporters. | |
| “Home!” wrote Jia Zhangke, the Chinese film director, on Weibo alongside a photograph of the lawyer. | |
| Pu’s wife, Meng Qun, who has been refused access to her husband since his detention, reacted with joy. “Of course she feels very happy that she can pick him up and take him home,” Mo said. | |
| However, others condemned the Communist party’s decision to hand down any punishment at all to the free speech icon. Under Tuesday’s ruling, Pu will be barred from practicing law. | |
| Murong Xuecun, a Chinese novelist and friend, said Pu should have been completely absolved as well as being awarded compensation for having to spend nearly 600 days in “illegal detention”. | |
| “Other than that, any verdict is an insult,” the author said. “I feel angry. I cannot accept this.” | |
| Sophie Richardson, Human Rights Watch’s China director, said Pu’s sentencing made a mockery of president Xi’s claims to be advancing the rule of law in China. | Sophie Richardson, Human Rights Watch’s China director, said Pu’s sentencing made a mockery of president Xi’s claims to be advancing the rule of law in China. |
| “The only acceptable sentence from the perspective of real rule of law is of course that Pu be freed immediately and utterly exonerated since he has broken no law,” she said. | “The only acceptable sentence from the perspective of real rule of law is of course that Pu be freed immediately and utterly exonerated since he has broken no law,” she said. |
| In a statement, Amnesty International attacked the court’s decision as “a gross injustice” and “a deliberate attempt by the Chinese authorities to shackle a champion of freedom of expression”. | |
| Nicholas Bequelin, Amnesty’s director for East Asia, said the decision not to hand down the maximum sentence of eight years suggested a “political compromise” by the Communist party. | |
| That compromise allowed China’s security forces to save face but simultaneously “keeps the screws on Pu,” who could face a return to jail if he refuses to step into line. | |
| At the time of his detention Pu, who was a student leader at the time of the 1989 Tiananmen massacre, was considered one of China’s foremost human rights lawyers; an outspoken and often irreverent attorney whose client list included the dissident artist Ai Weiwei. | |
| Pu commanded a sizeable online following and was known for his withering criticism of the government on Weibo, where his accounts were frequently shut down by censors. | |
| Supporters believe the Communist party, which has been waging a severe crackdown on its opponents since Xi Jinping became leader in 2012, was determined to silence a man they saw as a potential political threat. | |
| “If he were an American politician he’d outshine a lot of the candidates we have here – both intellectually and in his personal delivery,” said Perry Link, an American academic who knows Pu. | |
| Speaking ahead of Tuesday’s sentencing, William J Dobson, the author of The Dictator’s Learning Curve, said Pu’s trial highlighted the way in which authoritarian regimes used the law as “a cudgel of the state to keep the population in line”. | Speaking ahead of Tuesday’s sentencing, William J Dobson, the author of The Dictator’s Learning Curve, said Pu’s trial highlighted the way in which authoritarian regimes used the law as “a cudgel of the state to keep the population in line”. |
| “[Beijing is] increasingly showing a tougher and tougher line with dissent and with those who question the system. They are trying to make an example of those who do,” said Dobson, who has spent time in China with Pu. | “[Beijing is] increasingly showing a tougher and tougher line with dissent and with those who question the system. They are trying to make an example of those who do,” said Dobson, who has spent time in China with Pu. |
| “The question then becomes: is that a sign of strength or is that a sign of weakness? Does that instinct come from confidence or does it come from fear?” Dobson added. “I don’t know that we know the answer to that yet.” | “The question then becomes: is that a sign of strength or is that a sign of weakness? Does that instinct come from confidence or does it come from fear?” Dobson added. “I don’t know that we know the answer to that yet.” |
| Richardson, from Human Rights Watch, said the lighter-than-expected sentence did not signal that president Xi’s crackdown on dissent was easing. She pointed to the continued imprisonment of other high profile lawyers including Li Heping and Wang Yu. “I will believe it is over when every single one of those lawyers turns up unscathed,” Richardson said. | |
| Murong Xuecun said the government’s treatment of his friend gave the lie to Xi’s claims he was bringing the rule of law to China. | |
| “You can see this government doesn’t care the slightest about the so-called rule of law or about building a so-called country ruled by law,” the author said. “Pu’s case has made such slogans a laughing stock in China.” | |
| Additional reporting by Christy Yao |