China Gives Rights Lawyer Light Sentence

By Joseph Kahn | The New York Times
December 22, 2006

BEIJING, Dec. 22 — A Chinese court convicted a leading human rights lawyer of subversion on Friday but gave him an unusually light sentence under terms that may mean that he will soon be released.

The lawyer, Gao Zhisheng, 42, was sentenced to three years in prison with a five-year reprieve, the official New China News Agency said. That means he does not have to serve his sentence in prison as long as he does not commit another crime in the next five years, legal experts said.

Mr. Gao, who has been outspoken in his defiance of the ruling Communist Party, was expected to receive a harsher penalty for his prolific and uncompromising writings and his efforts to defend followers of the banned Falun Gong spiritual sect.

The authorities under President Hu Jintao have been seeking to cripple China’s weiquan, or rights protection, movement, which consists of journalists, grass-roots organizers and lawyers who use legal means to defend people who feel they have been wronged by officials.

Top officials have also sought to send a strong warning about the risks of cooperating with foreign news media and foreign organizations that have ties to China. Earlier this week a Beijing court sentenced Lu Jianhua, a prominent scholar at the government-run Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, to a 20-year prison term on charges of leaking state secrets. He was accused of disclosing unspecified sensitive information in articles he prepared for publication abroad.

Mr. Gao’s relatively light sentence may reflect his status as a leading dissident with relatively wide recognition among human rights groups overseas. His supporters in China have publicized his case and the plight of his family, whose members they say have suffered beatings and harassment by the security police.

But through the official news agency, the authorities presented Mr. Gao as cooperative, saying he had provided evidence that could be used against other opposition figures. “Gao also voluntarily reported others’ offenses and provided important clues for cracking other cases, a contribution to win him a lenient penalty and a reprieval of five years,” the agency said.

Hu Jia, a rights advocate who has maintained close ties to Mr. Gao, said officials mainly intended to reduce his influence.

The sentence deprives him of his “political rights,” which is often interpreted to include the freedom to publish or speak out on sensitive topics, for one year. It also places him under heavy scrutiny for another four years. “He will be a prisoner in his own home,” Mr. Hu said. “The sentence is better than we expected. But it is designed so that he will not be able to express himself in public.”

“This is a clever move by the leadership,” he added. “They can appear as though they are responsive to overseas opinion. But they also see that Gao’s influence will be diminished or eliminated within China.”

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