China lawyer in court in 3rd of series of subversion trials

Hu Shigen, has also been deprived of his political rights for five years, the No 2 Intermediate People’s Court in Tianjin which conducted the trial said in its verdict. Both were arrested in July past year as part of a nationwide government campaign.

His brief trial came a day after the court issued a suspended three-year sentence to activist Zhai Yanmin.

Impacted by “bourgeois liberalism”, Hu said he fell “deeper and deeper in to the criminal mire of anti-Party and anti-government groups”.

It was at the centre of the so-called “709 crackdown” — named for the July 2015 date on which it began — which saw more than 200 activists and lawyers detained for involvement in cases considered sensitive by China’s ruling Communist party.

Poon said that “it is very likely that the trials for Li and Zhou will happen this week” as the Tianjin court and Xinhua “have been so well-prepared in releasing the information about the trials of Zhai and Hu in the past two days”. There is no credible evidence of the charges publicly available, and all four defendants’ and Wang Yu’s lawyer have stated they are innocent of the charges.

Zhai’s trial lasted only a day in Tianjin, about 80 miles from Beijing where his former law firm Fengrui used to be based.

“I instilled these concepts into others to achieve the aim of ‘color revolution, ‘” he said. The lawyers also sought to undermine the Communist Party and enrich themselves, the report claimed. Instead, authorities detained them. Liu Ermin is the wife of one of the arrested activists.

Two other cases are expected to be heard by the court in the northern Chinese city this week, including those of activist Gou Hongguo and lawyer Zhou Shifeng, head of the Fengrui Law Firm that frequently took on sensitive cases and represented numerous government critics.

A well-known human rights lawyer, Wang Yu, was also set free this month after the release of a video confession in which she apologised, disowned her work, attacked her colleagues and said she received training including in the United Kingdom to “hype up” cases to attack the Chinese government. Since that time, authorities have committed multiple, severe procedural violations in these cases. He was also held by police in 2014 for supporting the Hong Kong democracy protests. It accused authorities of “grossly” abusing their power in handling the detainees, “disregarding Chinese laws and violating global human rights conventions”. While it is said she has been released, neither Wang’s lawyer nor her mother have any knowledge of her whereabouts. Her husband, Bao Longjun remains detained, and their teenage son, Bao Mengmeng, is under house arrest. She allegedly posted a written confession on her weibo account, yet her family and lawyer have been unable to contact her.

In a statement earlier this week, the families and supporters called the trials “ridiculous and evil”, calling for them to be given worldwide attention.

A Christian church leader has been jailed in China amid an ongoing crackdown on human rights activists.