By Ariel Lin
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

BEIJING, China – A 65-year-old democracy activist, Wang Rongqing, has been sentenced to six years in jail.  He is charged of “subversion against the state,” having supported and spread the “China Democracy Party” (CDP). The sentence was handed down on Thursday by the people’s court in Hangzhou (Zhejiang), according to a Chinese Human Rights Defenders.

Wang is a veteran of pro-democracy activism.  He had helped to set up CDP in the late 1990s, and and was imprisoned on a number of occasions.  Wang continued to “participate in an active way, organizing and developing it” even after the ministry of public safety had branded CDP an “enemy organization”, according to the crimes listed in the sentence.  Before the Olympics in Beijing, Mr. Wang organized the first national meeting of the CDP and published many articles on the web, and a book entitled “The opposition party.”

The sentence of six years is one of the highest ever handed down in Zhejiang for pro-democracy activists. According to the CHRD (Chinese Human Rights Defenders), after Wang’s arrest, the police advised his family to remain quiet and to accept a public attorney for the trial.  The police told Wang’s family, in this way, Wang could have received a lesser penalty. Wang’s family followed the advice, never gave interviews, and accepted court-appointed lawyer Liu Yong.

According to Zhou Wei, a dissident who attended the trial, says that the sentence was so heavy because the government is trying to suffocate any democratic criticism after the publication of Charter 08, a call for sweeping political change in China.  Wang’s friends say that Wang is ill, and is able to move only with the use of crutches.  At the reading of the sentence and asking him whether to appeal in court, Wang shrugged his shoulders as if to say this would be useless.

For more information, please see:

AP – Chinese democracy activist sentenced to 6 years – 08 January 2009

AsiaNews – Pro-democracy activist Wang Rongqing sentenced to six years for “subversion” – 08 January 2009

BBC – Veteran Chinese activist jailed – 08 January 2009

Reuters – China court jails dissident for 6 years – 07 January 2009