From Chinese Human Rights Defenders

(Network of Chinese Human Rights Defenders – January 29, 2019) A Chinese court sentenced human rights defender Liu Feiyue (刘飞跃), director of the NGO Civil Rights & Livelihood Watch, to 5 years in prison on “inciting subversion of state power” charges today. The verdict is clearly an act of retaliation against Liu Feiyue for exercising and advocating for human rights. Liu ran a website that published information on human rights violations, especially abuses of activists and dissidents in psychiatric detention facilities. Authorities also accused Liu of accepting funding from overseas. Suizhou Intermediate Court in Hubei announced the verdict today, following an August 2018 trial.

By imprisoning Liu, the Chinese government demonstrates its determination to take harsh and resolute measure to crush Chinese human rights advocates and NGOs. Under President Xi Jinping, the government has closed off civil society space in China for domestic and international human rights NGOs, especially since the Overseas NGO Management Law took effect two years ago. Criminalizing human rights NGO leaders like Liu Feiyue, and, most recently, Huang Qi (黄琦), Qin Yongmin (秦永敏), and Zhen Jianghua (甄江华), is the harshest measure that the government has taken in recent years in its war on civil society organizations promoting human rights, rule of law, and democracy.

The Suizhou court convicted Liu Feiyue and handed down a 5-year sentence with deprivation of political rights for 3 years, along with a 1,010,000 RMB (approx. 150,000 USD) fine during the sentencing hearing on January 29. The fine appears to match the amount of overseas funding that prosecutors accused Liu of accepting. His sentence will expire on November 17, 2021. At the August 7, 2018 trial, authorities did not allow any of Liu’s supporters into the courtroom for the hearing, and police detained supporters outside the courthouse, at train and bus stations in Suizhou, or blocked them at home.

For more than a decade, Liu Feiyue published articles online and worked peacefully to advocate and protect human rights. The website he ran amplified the voices and provided support to disadvantaged and marginalized social groups—workers, farmers, victims of forced eviction, school teachers, members of banned religions, and detainees in psychiatric hospitals—that China’s authoritarian development crushed or left behind.

The indictment against Liu accused him of six “major criminal offenses” and cited as evidence of “inciting subversion” his writings and publications of reports of human rights abuses on the Civil Rights & Livelihood Watch (民生观察) website. The indictment listed applying and accepting overseas funding to support the NGO’s operations as a “criminal act.” International human rights standards protecting the right to freedom of association includes the right to “solicit, receive, and utilize resources for the express purpose of promoting and protecting human rights and fundamental freedoms through peaceful means.” An earlier charge of “leaking state secrets” was dropped from the indictment.

Read full report here.