International

Activist lawyer slammed with 12-yr jail term in China

Published

8 years ago

September 22, 2016

Activist lawyer slammed with 12-yr jail term in China

The latest crackdown on human rights defenders and activists in China has seen Xia Lin, who is known to be working on sensitive human rights cases, slammed with a 12-year jail term on fraud charges.

Xia was also ordered to pay a fine of 120,000 yuan ($18,000) and give total compensation of 4.81 million yuan ($721,200) to fraud victims and his sentence comes amid a string of cases and subversion trials demonstrating the ruling Communist Party’s determination to silence independent human rights activists and government critics.

Al Jazeera’s Adrian Brown, reporting from Beijing, said the verdict against Xi who pleaded not guilty was never in doubt.

“His sentence is much stiffer than those given to dissidents in other trials that have happened in recent weeks and months in China,” he said.

“The courts are controlled by the Communist party so the verdict was never in doubt.”

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