China rights lawyer gets deferred three-year sentence

Pu has been released from detention after receiving the suspended jail sentence, the BBC reported. The guilty verdict means he can no longer practice law. Pu has “a sword hanging over his head for the next three years, and he’s very much at the mercy of the authorities”, he said.

Mr. Pu, who was arrested in May 2014, was tried on December 14 before a three-judge panel of the Second Intermediate People’s Court of Beijing on charges of “inciting ethnic hatred” and “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” in connection with a series of comments he made on the Internet. And in each of these cases this year, none of them have had to do any jail time. At the end of three years, if the police feel he has not violated any of those conditions, then his sentence will be commuted, according to the statute he was sentenced under.

“He said he thanks everyone and he wants to rest”, he added.

“From the perspective of the Chinese government, going after people like Pu through legal procedures for essentially political crimes has significant reputational costs overseas”, said Graham Webster, a senior fellow at Yale Law School’s China Center.

The United States said it was concerned about the suspended sentence. The comments included criticism of China’s policies in Tibet and Xinjiang.

Pu’s case has been closely watched by Chinese lawyers and activists, as well as foreign rights groups and embassies. It seeped into the USA presidential campaign as Sen.

In the comments for which he was tried, Pu said China did not need Communist rule, writing: “Other than secrecy, cheating, passing the buck, delay, the hammer and sickle, what kinds of secrets of governance does this party have?”

“This is still a case rife with injustice”, said William Nee, China researcher at Amnesty International.

The suspended sentence means Pu is released into a form of probation called residential surveillance for 10 days before being allowed back to his home in Beijing.

His trial ended last week with no verdict announced.

He was found guilty of crimes including “inciting ethnic hatred” for eight postings on the Weibo microblogging website from January 2012 to May 2014, the state-run Xinhua News Agency said.

“Pu is not guilty”, Ai said by telephone.

Although Pu has argued that his actions should be protected under China’s constitutional guarantees to free speech, he told the court on Tuesday that he has no intention to appeal.

“But that’s alright – if there’s no justice, I’ll sit in jail with Pu Zhiqiang“.

“I went there in the hope of sitting in the public gallery”, Ye said. “Certainly he could have been sentenced to prison time – and possibly significant prison time”.

Ren Jianyu, a former lower level official who was represented by Mr Pu after he was sent to a hard labour camp for criticising authorities, said the sentence was unjust.

“He has already paid a huge price in this case”, Liu said.