China court sentences 2nd activist for subversion

By Mahmut Atanur

BEIJING (AA) – A Chinese court has found an activist accused of leading an “underground church” guilty, a day after another man arrested during a crackdown last year was handed a suspended sentence.

Hu Shigen, who pleaded guilty, was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison Wednesday after being accused of subversion, damaging national security and harming social stability, state media reported.

Prosecutors said Hu, 61, led an "underground organization" that claimed to be a “religious body” but instructed its members on “how to take advantage of hot topics and sensitive issues to protest the government”.

"Hu's ideology and his behaviors have seriously harmed the country and social stability," they were quoted by the China Daily as telling the Tianjin No 2 Intermediate People's Court.

Hu had previously been sentenced to 20 years for “counter-revolution” in 1994, but was released in 2008 following a term reduction.

He was among hundreds of activists, rights lawyers and aides taken into custody under a campaign launched July 9, 2015 -- which the Hong Kong-based China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group said has affected at least 319 people in 24 mainland provinces.

Of them, at least 24 were formally charged with “subverting state powers, inciting subversion of state powers, and inciting provocation”, according to the South China Morning Post.

On Tuesday, another one of the activists, 55-year-old Zhai Yanmin, was sentenced to a three-year term with a four-year reprieve for “subverting State power”.

At least three others accused of collaborating with Hu and Zhai in the “underground” organization -- lawyers Gou Hongguo and Zhou Shifeng and activist Li Heping -- are being prosecuted in separated cases.