China lawyer’s sentence suspended in surprise verdict

State news agency Xinhua said the court decided “to impose a lenient punishment [due to] the fact that the defendant, Pu Zhiqiang, truthfully confessed to the facts of the crime and positively pleaded guilty”.

The verdict means for the next three years, Pu will be subject to monitoring by the police and needs permission to leave Beijing.

The suspended sentence means Pu does not have to serve prison time as long as he stays under formal probation.

The verdict in Mr. Pu’s case is the latest signpost in China’s wide-ranging crackdown on human-rights advocates and civil-society groups under Chinese President Xi Jinping, which some analysts say signals the Communist Party’s growing insecurity about its grip on power.

In this photo taken Wednesday, June 30, 2010, Chinese human rights lawyer Pu Zhiqiang speaks during an interview at his office in Beijing, China. “It’s a shot across the bow, as if another one was needed, for the entire community”.

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

Pu, who is seen by supporters as a champion of free speech, had pleaded not guilty to all charges, but was expecting a sentence of up to eight years in prison.

“The side effect of the whole thing, about the arrest, about the accusation and the trial, etc.is very much a threat and intimidation on the freedom of expression”, said Kit Chan, a spokesperson of China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group. The global community, including the USA government, had criticized China for suppressing free speech by detaining Pu for 19 months without trial. He defended survivors of forced labor camps, journalists and artists like Ai. “Is there a legal basis to regulate what a person can say or cannot say?”

Plain clothes security personnel gather outside the Beijing No. 2 People’s Intermediate Court where human rights lawyer Pu Zhiqiang was sentenced in Beijing, China, Tuesday, Dec. 22, 2015.

He said the authorities have detained the activists in order to frighten others who try to stand up for other people’s rights.

Summary: Rights Lawyer Pu Zhiqiang receives his sentence from last week’s trial. More than a dozen Chinese protesters were detained, a USA diplomat was shoved, and several foreign reporters were pushed, punched and cursed at. First, he’s too exhausted after a detention of more than 20 months.

He also condemned government policy in the mainly Muslim far western region of Xinjiang as “absurd” in the wake of a bloody knife attack blamed on separatists that killed 31 people at a train station in Kunming. He said the verdict thus both “saves face” for the authorities, and “keeps the screws” on Pu.

“There is a re-evaluation of justice in China”.

The statement said the ruling party will “resolve excess capacity” in some industries that has led to price-cutting wars and financial problems and “reduce the burden on enterprises”.

“Pu Zhiqiang is a good man!”

Pu accepted the ruling and will not appeal, CCTV said.

Awaiting the verdict in a nearby cafe out of way of police, supporter Xu Chongyang said: “I’m devastated”.