Criminal Justice
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Today, the condition of Gao Zhisheng, one of China's most prominent human rights lawyers, remains a closely guarded secret. In December 2011, the Chinese government announced Gao would be required to serve out his earlier three-year criminal sentence, just as his sentence suspension was about to expire.
The Suining Municipal Intermediate People's Court in Sichuan province sentenced democracy activist Chen Wei on December 23, 2011, to nine years in prison for "inciting subversion of state power" (Associated Press via Washington Post, 23 December 11; New York Times, 23 December 11). Inciting subversion is a crime under Article 105, Paragraph 2, of the Criminal Law.
Reported Changes in Official Restrictions on Chen and Family
Ding Mao and Chen Wei Cases Twice Transferred to Public Security Officials for Supplementary Investigation
Congressional-Executive Commission on China | www.cecc.gov
Statement of CECC Chairman Christopher Smith and Cochairman Sherrod Brown on the Release of the 2011 Annual Report
October 13, 2011
Congressional-Executive Commission on China | www.cecc.gov
Statement of CECC Chairman Christopher Smith and Cochairman Sherrod Brown on Human Rights Lawyer Gao Zhisheng
August 22, 2011
(Washington, DC)—CECC Chairman Christopher Smith and Cochairman Sherrod Brown call on Chinese authorities to immediately account for and free China's most famous human rights lawyer, Gao Zhisheng.
The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (Working Group) adopted two opinions on May 5, 2011, declaring that the Chinese government's deprivation of liberty of prominent Chinese intellectual Liu Xiaobo and his wife Liu Xia contravenes Articles 9, 10, and 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and is therefore arbitrary, according to the full text of the opinions made public in an August 1, 2011, Freedom Now press release. Liu Xiaobo, recipient of the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize, is currently serving an 11-year sentence that is set to expire on June 21, 2020.
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In recent months, Chinese officials reportedly have conducted one of the harshest crackdowns in years against human rights lawyers, civic activists, and other advocates. Those targeted have advocated on behalf of specific groups and issues, such as victims of earthquakes, diseases, and tainted food, child laborers, persecuted religious groups, and political dissidents.
Chinese authorities have detained, arrested, "disappeared," ordered to serve reeducation through labor, or otherwise harassed numerous rights defenders, political reform advocates, lawyers, petitioners, writers, artists, and Internet bloggers across China since mid-February 2011, according to international human rights groups and Western media.
Disappeared or Missing