CHINA:CHINA'S MOST renowned human rights defender, Hu Jia, who has spoken out on Aids, Tibetan autonomy and free speech, was jailed for 3½ years yesterday for "inciting to subvert state power" by writing articles about freedom and talking to foreign journalists.
While the sentence is lighter than many in the human rights community feared, Mr Hu's conviction for criticising the Chinese Communist Party is likely to become a cause celebre of rights activists ahead of the Olympic Games, alongside the issue of Tibet.
Official news agency Xinhua said Mr Hu had confessed to his crimes and accepted his punishment, hence the light sentence. His legal team said he had conceded to "excesses".
Mr Hu's wife, Zeng Jinyan, remains under house arrest with their infant daughter.
Mr Hu (34), a mild-mannered, slight figure who suffers from hepatitis B, was detained by police in late December after spending more than 200 days under house arrest in his Beijing apartment complex, which is called Bobo Freedom City.
He was found guilty of writing articles about human rights in the run-up to the Olympics that were posted on overseas Chinese websites such as Boxun. He also gave interviews to many foreign news media and embassies.
Mr Hu has long been a thorn in the side of the Beijing administration, which says his case exemplifies how western media are obsessed with human rights and other negative aspects of China's rise, while not paying enough attention to the progress made in recent years.
"Inciting subversion" can earn you five years or more in jail and Mr Hu's lawyer, Li Fangping, had feared a longer sentence. Another dissident, Yang Chunlin, who called for human rights to take precedence over the Olympic Games, was sentenced to five years in jail last month for the same crime.
John Kamm, executive director of the Dui Hua Foundation, a San Francisco-based group that works to free Chinese political prisoners, said that the verdict seemed rushed.
"From the point of detention to the announcement of the verdict, this case is the fastest we've seen and it raises questions about whether due process was exercised," he said in an interview.
"In my discussions with Chinese officials recently, after the events in Lhasa, I was told that any concessions would be seen as a sign of weakness. This appears to be the mindset."
Mr Kamm added: "The Hu Jia verdict to me speaks to this very hard attitude toward dissent and protest that we've been seeing for a while, but in the aftermath of Lhasa is now exceptional."
Press freedom group Reporters Without Borders was appalled by the sentence imposed on Mr Hu and called on the EU to freeze its human rights dialogue with China.
"The Chinese justice system has, at the behest of the authorities, thrown oil on the flames just four months ahead of the Olympic Games by imposing this sentence on Hu Jia, a figurehead of the peaceful struggle to improve respect for human rights in China," the group said.
"In a sign of protest, we urge the European governments to immediately freeze the constructive dialogue on human rights that has been conducted with China for the past few years."
In a separate development, French athletes are planning to wear a distinctive sign showing their concern about human rights during the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics.