Four More New Citizens Movement Advocates Convicted, Sentenced to Between Two and Three-and-a-Half Years

Four citizen activists involved in public calls for high-ranking officials to reveal their assets in 2013 have each been found guilty of “gathering a crowd to disrupt order in a public place.” Two of them—Ding Jiaxi (丁家喜) and Zhao Changqing (赵常青)—were accused of planning street actions in the early months of 2013 in Beijing where participants displayed banners and made public speeches; the other two—Li Wei (李蔚) and Zhang Baocheng (张宝成)—were among the participants of those actions.

Ding Jiaxi received a sentence of three years and six months; Zhao Changqing, two years and six months;  Li Wei, two years; and Zhang Baocheng, two years. Lawyers for Ding Jiaxi, Zhao Changqing, and Zhang Baocheng said their clients will appeal. (Click here to see details of the trials, defense statements, and background essays on these citizen activists.)

The rulings, announced this morning by the Beijing Municipal Haidian District Court, where the activists were tried last week, continue a pattern of criminal prosecution of citizen activists who take part in peaceful assemblies to promote asset transparency as a way to fight corruption, a problem that Chinese president Xi Jinping himself exhorted the government to address after taking office in November 2012.

In court and in written statements, the defendants and their lawyers have repeatedly protested the sham nature of their trials—that the prosecutions are retaliations against the lawful exercise of rights protected by Chinese law. In particular, the right to freedom of expression and assembly and the right to criticize and make recommendations to the government are protected under the Chinese Constitution (articles 35 and 41, respectively). They have also rigorously protested what they saw as serious procedural violations.

Sui Muqing (隋牧青), one of Ding Jiaxi's lawyers, received a phone call from the Haidian District Court yesterday informing him of the court's decision to strip him of his status as Ding's lawyer in response to Sui's decision to leave the court on April 8 to protest procedural problems. As a result, the court did not accept his defense statement or allow him to come to the court today to hear the verdict.

While not surprised by the outcome, the activists' lawyers called these verdicts shameful. Lawyer Wang Fu (王甫), one of Zhao Changqing's lawyers, said on his Weibo account that the verdicts represent “the darkest hours for the rule of law,” but that he “firmly believes that in the not so distant future, Mr. Zhao and others like him will be declared innocent.” (虽经我和张培鸿律师全力辩护，赵先生还是被判处两年六个月，这是司法之耻，也是法治史最为黑暗的时刻。我们坚信，在不远的将来，赵先生们不仅会被宣告无罪，他们为所有人曾受的苦难还将被塑成一座公义之碑).

In a defense statement submitted to the court, Zhang Baocheng's lawyer Ge Yongxi (葛永喜) argued that recent trials of citizen activists are nothing but reprisals and that such prosecution will neither intimidate the people nor dampen their aspiration for democracy, freedom, and the rule of law.

Asset transparency is a key demand of the New Citizens Movement, which is a loose network of activists urging citizens to exercise their rights and assume their responsibilities as citizens. In January 2014, Xu Zhiyong (许志永), a key advocate in the movement was sentenced to four years in prison, also for disrupting public order; on appeal, the conviction was upheld by the Beijing Higher People's Court on April 11. On April 16, another asset transparency advocate, Yuan Dong (袁冬), who was tried and convicted in January, also lost his appeal when the Beijing Municipal No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court upheld his first instance verdict and 18-month prison sentence.