Posts Tagged ‘subversion’

China: Dissident Zhu Yufu jailed for seven years over poem

February 14th, 2012

Veteran Chinese dissident Zhu Yufu has been sentenced to seven years in prison for ”inciting subversion of state power” after he shared his poem “It’s time” over Skype. The court in Hangzhou, eastern China, sentenced Zhu following a trial hearing on 31 January. During the hearing, prosecutors cited the poem and messages the activist had sent online. In the poem, Yufu called on Chinese citizens to defend their freedoms. The court verdict said the crime deserved “severe” punishment.

China: Dissident charged with subversion

January 17th, 2012

A veteran Chinese dissident is facing subversion charges for writing a poem urging people to defend their freedoms. Zhu Yufu was arrested last April for “inciting subversion of state power” but no trial date has yet been set. Authorities decided to prosecute the activist almost a year after the poem “It’s time” was published online. One verse reads “It’s time, Chinese people!/the square belongs to everyone/the feet are yours/it’s time to use your feet and take to the square to make a choice.” Yufu’s lawyer said the poem was written around the “time of chaos” in the Middle East.

China: activist jailed for nine years for “subversive writing”

December 23rd, 2011

Chinese pro-democracy activist Chen Wei has been sentence to nine years’ imprisonment for inciting subversion over four essays he wrote and published online calling for freedom of speech. He was detained in February this year amid an intense government crackdown in response to anonymous online calls for protests in China inspired by the uprisings in the Middle East. Chen has previously served time in prison for participating in the 1989 Tiananmen Square demonstrations in Beijing.

China: prominent dissident faces subversion charges

December 9th, 2009

Police in China have recommended that prominent dissident Liu Xiaobo be formally charged with subversion. He has been held in jail for over a year without charges and previously served 20 months for his part in the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. The author has been an outspoken critic of the Chinese government for many years and was eventually arrested in December 2008 after creating the Charter 08 petition, a manifesto urging political reform. Read more here

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