By Jim Yardley
BEIJING – A Chinese court on Thursday sentenced an outspoken human rights advocate to 3 1/2 years in prison after ruling that his critical essays and comments about Communist Party rule amounted to inciting subversion, his lawyer said.
The conviction of the advocate, Hu Jia, 34, one of the most prominent human rights activists in China, quickly brought outside criticism of China at a time when the government is already facing international concern over its handling of the Tibetan crisis.
Hu’s case has been followed closely, especially in Europe, and critics say his conviction is part of a government crackdown to silence dissidents before Beijing plays host to the Olympic Games in August.
Diane Sovereign, a spokeswoman for the U.S. embassy in Beijing, described the U.S. government’s reaction to the verdict as “dismayed.”
“Mr. Hu has consistently worked within China’s legal system to protect the rights of his fellow citizens,” Sovereign said. “These types of activities support China’s efforts to institute the rule of law and should be applauded, not suppressed or punished.”
Hu’s wife, Zeng Jinyan, herself a well-known blogger and rights advocate, was distraught in a telephone interview on Thursday.
“I feel hopeless and helpless,” said Zeng, who is under house arrest with the couple’s infant daughter in their suburban Beijing apartment, though she was allowed to visit her husband on Thursday.
Asked why Hu was arrested and convicted, she said: “The fundamental reason is to silence him. He had been speaking up and all he said was plain truth.”
Earlier this year, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice raised Hu’s case during a meeting with China’s foreign minister, Yang Jiechi. The European Union presidency has criticized the subversion charge and called for Hu’s release.
Li Fangping, the defense lawyer, said the court showed leniency by sentencing him to less than the maximum five-year term. Li said the sentence also forbids Hu from making any public political statements for one year following his release from prison.
“Three and a half years is still unacceptable to us,” Li told a throng of reporters outside the courthouse.
Prosecutors in China rarely discuss cases after a verdict. But Xinhua, the country’s official news agency, reported that Hu had confessed to the charges.
In his human rights work, Hu has volunteered to help AIDS patients and plant trees to fight the conversion of land into desert.
In recent years, he has maintained regular contacts with dissidents and other advocates on issues ranging from environmental protection and legal reform. He has also served as a one-man clearinghouse of information about peasant protests and dissidents, subjects that are often censored in the Chinese media.
He was detained on Dec. 27 last year and charged with “incitement to subvert state power,” a charge based on six essays and interviews in which he criticized the Communist Party. Hu wrote a long, blistering essay detailing how police had tortured two people who had protested about having their homes illegally seized in Beijing. In that essay, he also criticized the Communist Party’s human-rights record.