News Digest

Prominent China human rights lawyer convicted but avoids jail

A court convicted one of China’s most prominent rights lawyers on Tuesday of “inciting ethnic hatred” and trouble-making with posts criticising the government, handing down a suspended sentence that means he avoids jail but will not practise law again. Activists said the three-year suspended sentence for Pu Zhiqiang would serve as a strong reminder to other rights lawyers that the Communist Party, currently engaged in a severe clampdown on dissent, would brook no challenge to its rule. The Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People’s Court said Pu was being punished on the charges of inciting ethnic hatred and “picking quarrels and provoking trouble”.

He said he thanks everyone and he wants to rest. He also said if there’s an opportunity, history will deliver a true judgment.

Pu Zhiqiang's lawyer, Shang Baojun

Pu, 50, was sentenced to three years in prison but given a three-year reprieve, said his lawyer, Shang Baojun. The suspended sentence means Pu does not have to serve prison time as long as he stays under formal probation during that period, legal experts said. It means that Pu would be released on Tuesday, Shang said, although he could be placed under “residential surveillance” - a form of detention in China that is used to keep dissidents in sites away from the public eye. Pu has represented many well-known dissidents, including artist Ai Weiwei and activists of the “New Citizens’ Movement”, a group that has called on Chinese leaders to make their wealth public.