China activists get suspended terms for disturbance
Court says 3 activists found guilty of ‘disrupting the peace’ after confessing
BEIJING
A Chinese court has sentenced three labor activists to suspended terms for “disrupting the peace”.
State news agency Xinhua reported Tuesday that Zeng Feiyang was given a four-year suspended sentence, during which he will have to serve three years if he falls afoul of the law, while Tang Huanxing and Zhu Xiaomei were both given 18-month terms with two-year reprieves.
"The defendants ignored national laws and organized mass gatherings that disturbed social order,” said a statement issued by the people's court of Panyu District in southern Guangdong province.
“Their acts, of a severe nature, resulted in an enterprise being suspended and led to grave losses," it added.
The three activists previously worked at a support center for migrant workers, which was co-founded by Zeng but shut down by the industry and commerce authority in 2007 – Zeng, however, reportedly continued to organize activities.
All three pleaded guilty -- with Zeng admitting to having received funding and training from "some overseas organizations hostile to China” -- and decided against appealing.
Lai Shengqi, a lawyer representing Zeng, who was arrested in December alongside other activists, was quoted by the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post as saying that the verdict was “lighter than we expected, as Zeng could have been sentenced to up to seven years”.
The newspaper reported that a fourth colleague of Zeng, Meng Han, remains under investigation and has refused to confess, describing such a move as “betraying his conscience” in a letter.
The Hong Kong-based China Labour Bulletin describes Zeng’s rights center as having had a “good reputation among workers”, and in one case having helped workers at a Guangzhou shoe factory win compensation worth 100 million yuan ($15 million) in a dispute over social insurance payments and relocation costs.
The Panyu court said the three activists sentenced Monday repented for their confessed crimes.
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