AsiaMedia :: CHINA: Activist jailed over June 4 petition

CHINA: Activist jailed over June 4 petition
Veteran dissident Sang Jiancheng has been jailed for three years for subversion after distributing a letter calling on the government to reassess its verdict on the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests
South China Morning Post
Thursday, January 8, 2004
By Bill Savadove
Veteran dissident Sang Jiancheng has been jailed for three years for subversion after distributing a letter calling on the government to reassess its verdict on the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, a US-based human rights group says.
The Shanghai Intermediate People‘s Court handed down the sentence on Tuesday for the offence of "incitement to subvert state power" more than a year after Sang was arrested, Human Rights in China said.
Prosecutors said Sang distributed an "open letter" in the western city of Xian in 2002 that was addressed to the 16th Communist Party Congress and signed by several political activists.
Several people who signed the letter have also been jailed. One of the writers of the letter, Ouyang Yi, is waiting to learn his sentence after being tried recently for posting pro-democracy material on the internet, rights groups said.
The letter, signed by 192 people, urged the government to reassess its condemnation of the June 4, 1989 protests, release political prisoners and expand democratic elections.
Others who signed the letter and received jail terms include Zhao Changqing, Dai Xuezhong, He Depu and Jiang Lijun.
Shanghai police arrested Sang in November 2002 and city prosecutors charged him with subversion on December 18 that year. A court official contacted yesterday said he was aware of the case, but declined to comment. A woman reached at Sang‘s home, who identified herself as a relative, also declined to comment.
Rights groups said Sang participated in the 1979 Democracy Wall movement and the 1989 protests.
The Chengdu Intermediate People‘s Court put Ouyang on trial in October for posting an essay on the internet calling for more democracy, the Hong Kong-based Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy said.
But the court requested more evidence, including the original essay, from prosecutors on January 5 and gave them a month to comply.
Ouyang, a 35-year-old primary teacher from Sichuan, was arrested in December 2002.
Date Posted: 1/8/2004