Beijing (AsiaNews) - After a show trial that lasted only a few hours, the nephew of blind dissident Chen Guangcheng was sentenced to three years and three months in prison for "intentional injury." Kegui Chen, 33, has made it known that he would not appeal the decision. He had resisted agents of the communist regime who, without judicial authorization and in plainclothes, had entered the family home to look for traces of the dissident on the run.
Chen Guangcheng, blind from childhood, in April 2012 created a diplomatic row between Beijing and Washington with his sensational escape from house arrest to which he had been illegally subjected by the communist regime.
Chen Guangcheng, today in the United States, is known for his battles against AIDS and against forced abortions in Shandong province. After his arrest, Chen Kegui was accused of murder: the accusation did not hold as no one had died in the clashes after the raid.
Nevertheless, the young man was still held for six months by the police in Yinan County, which denied him any communication with the outside world and forbade his lawyers to meet with him. Professor Jerome Cohen of New York University, one of the world's leading experts on Chinese law and very close to the Chen family, calls the trial a farce: "The hearing was conducted in such a way as to prevent any form of defense and the presence of any observer. The authorities did not allow the accused to meet the lawyers he had appointed, and he has not been given an opportunity to exercise the right of appeal."