China Sentences Human Rights Webmaster to 3 Years in Prison
And the court that summarily gave him the harshest punishment allowed by the law even refused to provide a copy of the sentence to him or his wife, reports The Washington Post.
(AP photo)
Huang Qi (above), an activist who has denounced shoddy construction in thousands of buildings that collapsed in last year's Sichuan earthquake, was sentenced for "illegally possessing state secrets."
According to his wife, Huang was never told what state secrets he possessed and was given the maximum sentence as "revenge."
He was arrested, indicted and sentenced in Chengdu, the capital of the Sichuan Province, where some 80,000 people perished in the May 12, 2008 quake, including at least 5,335 children who died crushed by their collapsing schools. He's not the only one in prison for denouncing official responsibility in the quake's devastating death toll.
Through his website www.64tianwang.com, Huang had become a thorn on the authorities' side by denouncing repressive practices and supporting democratic causes.
The sentence also shatters any hopes that US President Barack Obama's recent visit to China, where he openly advocated for respect for human rights, would make any difference in the treatment of dissidents by Beijing's repressive bureaucracy.
This is Huang's second incarceration. In 2003, he was given a two-year sentence for "inciting subversion" over his denunciations of the 1989's massacre of Tiananmen Square.
This new show of arbitrary repression of human rights tells us all that old habits die hard, especially when you brandish the sword of absolute power.
(AP photo)
Huang Qi (above), an activist who has denounced shoddy construction in thousands of buildings that collapsed in last year's Sichuan earthquake, was sentenced for "illegally possessing state secrets."
According to his wife, Huang was never told what state secrets he possessed and was given the maximum sentence as "revenge."
He was arrested, indicted and sentenced in Chengdu, the capital of the Sichuan Province, where some 80,000 people perished in the May 12, 2008 quake, including at least 5,335 children who died crushed by their collapsing schools. He's not the only one in prison for denouncing official responsibility in the quake's devastating death toll.
Through his website www.64tianwang.com, Huang had become a thorn on the authorities' side by denouncing repressive practices and supporting democratic causes.
The sentence also shatters any hopes that US President Barack Obama's recent visit to China, where he openly advocated for respect for human rights, would make any difference in the treatment of dissidents by Beijing's repressive bureaucracy.
This is Huang's second incarceration. In 2003, he was given a two-year sentence for "inciting subversion" over his denunciations of the 1989's massacre of Tiananmen Square.
This new show of arbitrary repression of human rights tells us all that old habits die hard, especially when you brandish the sword of absolute power.
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