A Chinese court has sentenced two prominent human rights lawyers to more than 10 years in prison each, relatives of one of the human rights activists said, amid continued crackdown on so-called civil society after he took power in China. Chairman Xi Jinping.

Su Jiyong, 50, and Ding Jiaxi, 55, were tried behind closed doors in June 2022 in Linshu County, northeast Shandong Province. They were accused of subversive activities, relatives then told Reuters.

Messrs. Su and Ding are figures in the New Citizens’ Movement, an organization that has made demands such as greater transparency regarding the enrichment of officials and allowing Chinese citizens to exercise their constitutional rights.

Luo Shengchun, the wife of the second lawyer, who lives in the US and has repeatedly filed protests against his case with the State Department, told Reuters about the verdict but said she did not yet know all the details.

“Lawyers have been banned from releasing verdicts and dare not reveal where they were convicted or what the charges were,” he said, adding that he would continue to press for more evidence.

“I’m not going to let them go to jail so easily,” he said.

Mr. Su was sentenced to 14 years in prison, Mr. Ding, her husband, was sentenced to 12 years in prison, she said.

Two lawyers have been in custody for more than three years. Ding Jiaxi was brought in by police in December 2019 after attending an event with about twenty other lawyers and activists.

According to his lawyer, Peng Jian, he was held incommunicado – incommunicado – for six months and systematically tortured to extract a “confession.”

Mr. Su, a friend of Mr. Ding who once wrote an open letter calling on President Xi to resign, was detained in February 2020 after going underground.

According to Ms. Luo, the authorities have banned their lawyers from any contact with foreign media, a practice that has become more common in recent years to avoid publicizing human rights cases.

Both lawyers have already been imprisoned for their activism.

Secret tests

“The inhuman farce that these convictions and sentences against Su Jiyong and Ding Jiaxi are demonstrates President Xi’s rampant hostility to peaceful activism,” said Yacho Wang, China researcher at Human Rights Watch (HRW).

The secret closed trials were “fraught with procedural problems and allegations of abuse,” the rights group said in a statement.

The crackdown on dissent has escalated sharply since President Xi came to power in 2012. Since July 9, 2015, hundreds of human rights lawyers have been arrested and dozens imprisoned in the so-called “709” series of cases, NGOs report.

The Chinese government usually downplays criticism of its human rights record. He claims that China is a country where the law rules and that lawyers and activists in prisons have committed illegal acts.

Source: APE-MPE, Reuters.