China jails man who planned Tiananmen Square anniversary protest

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/24/china-tiananmen-square-anniversary-protest-gu-yimin

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A Chinese court has jailed for 18 months a man who applied to hold a protest on the anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square killings, according to his lawyer.

Gu Yimin was found guilty of inciting state subversion for posting pictures of the crackdown online and applying for permission to stage a protest on its anniversary last year, Liu Weiguo said.

"This judgment violates the constitution," Liu added. Gu would appeal against the verdict, handed down by a court in Changshu, in the eastern province of Jiangsu. "We maintain that Gu Yimin was exercising his right to freedom of speech," Liu said.

He added that men he believed to be state security officers had assaulted him and another lawyer outside the courthouse.

Hundreds of protesters – by some estimates, thousands – were killed in 1989 when the Chinese army acted against the pro-democracy movement in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, the symbolic heart of the Chinese state.

The ruling Communist party remains intolerant of dissent, and tightly censors public discussion of the crackdown.

Gu had applied to local authorities to hold a small-scale protest on 4 June last year, the 24th anniversary of the event, his wife, Xu Yan, told AFP.

He stood trial in September and denied the charges, his lawyer said, adding that Gu, 36, had called off his protest after the authorities warned him against going ahead.

"There is nothing illegal about posting a photograph of a genuine incident," Liu said. "If his activities caused damage to the party, that's not the same as damaging the state."

Charges of incitement to state subversion have been used in the past to imprison political dissidents. The Nobel prizewinner Liu Xiaobo was sentenced to 11 years in jail in 2009 after circulating a petition calling for political reforms including democratic elections.