Human rights lawyer Xie Yang sentenced to five years in prison
He was convicted for "inciting subversion of state power" after a trial marked by serious procedural breaches of Chinese and international law. Xie, who has handled several sensitive cases, including religious persecution cases, and has been imprisoned and tortured in the past for his work. The human rights community is calling for his immediate release.
New York (AsiaNews) – China has sentenced prominent human rights lawyer Xie Yang to five years in prison for “inciting subversion of state power,” Human Rights Watch reported today.
The sentence, handed down yesterday by the Changsha Intermediate Court, is politically motivated, according to the human rights organisation, which also denounced serious procedural violations and called for Xie's immediate release.
“The Chinese authorities’ prosecution of Xie Yang and the court’s harsh sentence reflects Beijing’s utter contempt for the rule of law,” said Maya Wang, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “This case not only aimed to persecute a brave human rights lawyer like Xie, but to intimidate all lawyers seeking to protect Chinese people’s rights,” she added.
There were several procedural violations. Xie's wife, Chen Guiqiu, reported that the court, in issuing its verdict, referenced several posts made by her husband on WeChat.
The court also ordered the confiscation of 100,000 yuan (about US,500), while the authorities extended the pre-trial detention 13 times, for a total of more than four years, and prevented other lawyers from attending hearings.
In fact, the trial was held in secret last October, and the police only informed the family later.
These procedures not only violated human rights laws but also China's Criminal Procedural Law, which guarantees the right to defence, public hearings, and strict time limits for criminal investigations, Human Rights Watch noted.
Considering the time already served in prison, his sentence is expected to end in January 2027.
The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention deemed Xie's detention as unlawful and called for his immediate release.
Xie, 54, originally from Changsha in Hunan Province, began practising law in 2011. Since then, he has primarily defended activists and victims of abuse, including cases of religious persecution and land disputes.
He had previously been sentenced to prison for his human rights work. He was detained between 2015 and 2017 and tortured.
In January 2022, he was arrested again after demanding the release of a young teacher, who had also been forcibly held in a psychiatric hospital for criticising censorship in education.
At the time, the police searched his home and charged him with “inciting subversion” and “picking quarrels and provoking trouble”.
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03/08/2023 16:02
