A Heavy Price for Free Speech

Pu Zhiqiang will be released soon, but cannot practice law again

Human rights lawyer Pu Zhiqiang was handed a three-year suspended jail sentence for posting online comments that were critical of the Communist Party. While he will be released in days, he will not be allowed to practice law again.

The Beijing Second Intermediate People's Court found Pu, 50, guilty of "inciting ethnic hatred" and "picking quarrels and provoking trouble", according to a report by Xinhua news agency.

According to legal experts, the suspended jail sentence means Pu will be put on probation for three years and if he violates the terms or commits offenses in the next three years, he will have to serve his original sentence.

His lawyer, Shang Baojun says lawyers who have been convicted have their lawyer's license revoked. "To be incriminated over one's speech in seven microblog messages -- this is a very heavy price indeed," Shang said.

Amnesty International said the suspended jail sentence was "a deliberate attempt by the Chinese authorities to shackle a champion of freedom of expression".

However, Xinhua said the court handed down a light sentence because Pu "pro-actively confessed to his crimes and showed remorse". It added Pu would not appeal.

We do not know exactly what happened in the court room, but we do know last week that he was adamant about rejecting the charges against him. So what happened between then and now is unclear.

He was convicted on the basis of the content of seven microblog messages that were critical of the government's handling of an ethnic conflict in Kunming, Yunnan province last year, and sarcastic comments about two officials.

Xinhua reported the court said between January 2012 and May 2014, Pu posted messages eight times on various Weibo accounts "to stir ethnic relations and incite ethnic hatred". It said his messages were retweeted 2,500 times and had 1,300 comments, and thus had "provoked internet users' strong ethnic hatred and confrontation feelings", and his behaviour had "posed social danger that has reached a serious level".

As a result, this had caused "psychological damage", and had "lowered [people's] opinions of society", and created "chaos in cyberspace" and a "bad influence in society", and his behaviour had "gravely disrupted social order".

The court makes it sound like Pu was someone disseminating hate literature. While reposting his message 2,500 times is a lot, when compared relative to the number of people in China, it's not a big exposure.

Nevertheless, Xinhua said Pu apologized and showed his willingness to accept punishment during the trial. It added that Pu told the court that through his ordeal, "he has experienced the progress of rule of law, the improvement of the law, and progress of society"...

Was his trial a sign of progress of rule of law in China? The lawyer who suffers from diabetes, heart disease and high blood pressure, was detained for 19 months without trial and no access to his family.

Beijing has effectively silenced yet another of its critics in a harsh way. He will be made into an example for others to conform even more to the Party line.

But China needs people like him to point out the country's flaws that must be addressed and dealt with. He and others like him want to hold the government accountable so that it will be a more effective one.

How will China's civil society ever be able to flourish when it is so badly needed now?

Human Rights Lawyer on Trial in Beijing

Pu Zhiqiang was on trial yesterday for what he wrote on Weibo

Yesterday one of China's most outspoken human rights lawyers, Pu Zhiqiang defended himself in court on charges of inciting ethnic hatred or "provoked trouble" by writing microblog commentaries critical of the Communist Party.

Pu's lawyer Shang Baojun said the three-hour trial at Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People's Court ended with no verdict, though he expected one "very soon".

The trial took place 19 months after Pu was detained by police after he attended a private seminar to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown.

Many believe his detainment and subsequent trial are a way to silence him and warn other rights advocates not to speak out.

Plainclothes police in black masks shoved supporters around

Pu is charged with "inciting ethnic hatred" and "provoking quarrels and provoking trouble" for the content of seven Weibo messages he posted online between July 2011 and May 2014.

He could face up to eight years in jail.

The online messages are mostly critical of the government's handling of an ethnic conflict in Kunming, Yunnan province last year, and sarcastic comments about two officials.

Shang, Pu's lawyer, said while Pu admitted his microblog writing style was "sharp, caustic and sometimes vulgar", "he said he didn't think he had incited ethnic hatred or provoked trouble. He had no such intention," Shang said.

Pu was not asked whether he admitted to his guilt during the trial.

Security was tight outside the courthouse and while there were many supporters, some of whom were pushed around forcefully by plainclothes police wearing black face masks while talking to foreign media.

Even foreign diplomats were roughly handled, including American diplomat Dan Biers who tried to read out a statement. It took a while before the situation calmed down before he could read it out in its entirety.

A supporter was forcefully pushed to the ground while filmed

He said the United States embassy called for Pu's release and urged "China to uphold fundamental civil rights and fair trial guarantees".

"Lawyers and civil society leaders such as Mr Pu should not be subject to continued repression but should be allowed to contribute to the building of a prosperous and stable society," Biers read out in his statement.

Some of Pu's supporters outside the courthouse chanted, "Pu Zhiqiang, not guilty!"

"He is a good lawyer who helped the underprivileged. He should never be convicted," said Zhang Jie, a petitioner from Jilin province.

Another from Henan province said: "How can he be charged just because of a few words he said?"

China law expert Eva Pils at King's College, London, said Pu's trial was "part of a crackdown on civil society [and] was clearly related to his free speech advocacy and role as a government critic".

"The authorities have made it clear that they see rights lawyers in particular as enemies of the state [and] that it treats the human rights movement as a subversive force it aims to annihilate," she said.

There are health concerns for Pu as he suffers from diabetes, heart disease and high blood pressure. Requests for bail have been rejected by the court.

China needs people like Pu to hold the government accountable, but the authorities clearly see him as a threat. We shall see what the verdict is, but it probably won't be what we are hoping for...