UN strongly criticises China jailing two rights activists

The UN has denounced the decision by a Chinese court to hand out lengthy jail terms to two prominent human rights lawyers with the world body’s rights chief, saying he was “very concerned” with the sentencing of the two activists.

Xu Zhiyong and Ding Jiaxi who were critical of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and President Xi Jinping and advocated improved civil rights in the country were given lengthy jail terms on Monday — 14 years and 12 years respectively — in what is being seen as Beijing’s latest crackdown on dissent.

“I am very concerned that two prominent human rights defenders in China — Ding Jiaxi and Xu Zhiyong — have been sentenced to lengthy prison terms, at variance with international human rights law standards,” UN Human Rights chief, Volker Turk, said in a statement released by his office.

“Human rights law requires that people not be prosecuted or otherwise punished for voicing their criticism of government policies. It also requires respect for fair trial and due process rights, and proper investigations into any allegations of ill-treatment,” Turk said in his statement.

The UN official promised to “…follow up on these cases with the authorities”.

“It is important that steps are taken to ensure that other human rights defenders are not targeted for exercising their human rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly.”

A court in eastern China’s Shandong province on Monday sentenced Xu to 14 years in prison and Ding to 12 years after convicting each for the crime of “subversion of state power”.

Courts in China are not independent and answerable to the ruling Communist Party of China.

“Their trials were conducted behind closed doors and riddled with procedural problems and allegations of mistreatment,” the US-based rights body, Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.

“The cruelly farcical convictions and sentences meted out to Xu Zhiyong and Ding Jiaxi show President Xi Jinping’s unstinting hostility towards peaceful activism,” said Yaqiu Wang, senior China researcher at Human Rights Watch.

Rights group Amnesty International called the sentencing “disgraceful” and a “blatant violation of their rights to freedom of expression and assembly. They should be released immediately and unconditionally”.

Xu and Ding were members of the New Citizens’ Movement, a loose collective of activists founded by Xu in 2012 to advocate government transparency.

In early February 2020, Xu criticised Xi’s handling of the coronavirus crisis and the Hong Kong pro-democracy protests and called on him to resign.

“On February 15 2020, Xu was detained while staying at the home of a fellow activist and subsequently also held incommunicado in residential surveillance at a designated location until January 15 2021,” the Amnesty statement said.