Chinese court sends well-known rights lawyer and spouse to prison, US responds
A Chinese court handed prison terms to rights lawyer Yu Wensheng and his wife Xu Yan for state subversion charges. Multiple western countries called for their immediate release after closed-door trial
The Suzhou court gave prison time to Yu Wensheng and his wife Xu Yan this week; they got three years and one-year-nine-months respectively for state-power related charges
These sentences demonstrate the PRCʼs continuing efforts to silence those who speak out for human rights and the rule of law
The couples arrest happened about a year and half ago when they tried to meet with EU representatives (which made European officials quite unhappy). Foreign diplomats werent allowed to watch the trial - France Germany and the EU asked China to free them
Yu who is 56-years old has been in trouble before: he got out of jail about 2 years ago after a 4-year term. Back then he wrote a letter asking for some political changes His wife Xu worked hard to get him released and said he had health problems in jail - but officials say thats not true
Around 9 years ago Yu was one of 300-plus rights defenders caught in a big clean-up. He got some nice awards for his work:
- Franco-German prize for human rights in 18
- Martin Ennals Award in 21
The court used a law about making trouble with state power to put them away - their family members havent said anything about it yet
