China jails lawyer for ‘spreading subversive thoughts’

&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"wpcnt">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"wpa">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<span class&equals;"wpa-about">Advertisements<&sol;span>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"u top&lowbar;amp">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<amp-ad width&equals;"300" height&equals;"265"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; type&equals;"pubmine"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; data-siteid&equals;"111265417"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; data-section&equals;"2">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;amp-ad>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div><p>Chinese lawyer has been jailed for seven years in the third in a series of subversion trials demonstrating the ruling Communist Party&&num;8217&semi;s determination to silence independent human rights activists and government critics&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The sentence given to Zhou Shifeng results from his role as director of Beijing&&num;8217&semi;s Fengrui Law Firm&comma; which took on sensitive cases and represented people who dared to challenge the party&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Zhou&comma; 52&comma; accepted the ruling and will not appeal&comma; the official Xinhua News Agency reported&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>His half-day trial in the northern city of Tianjin followed those of two related legal activists earlier this week&comma; both on charges of subversion&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>As with the others&comma; Zhou was detained in July last year during a sweeping round-up of activists and lawyers&period; About 300 people were initially seized and questioned before most were released&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Zhou was accused of coming under the influence of &&num;8220&semi;anti-China forces&&num;8221&semi; and opposing China&&num;8217&semi;s government and political system&period; He was also accused of opposing the &&num;8220&semi;one country&comma; two systems&&num;8221&semi; policy applied in former foreign colonies Hong Kong and Macau&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Zhou &&num;8220&semi;played a major role in a group of activists who attempted to manipulate public opinion and damage national security by spreading subversive thoughts&&num;8221&semi;&comma; state media quoted the verdict as saying&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>It said Zhou worked with activists Hu Shigen&comma; Zhai Yanmin and Li Heping &&num;8220&semi;to encourage lawyers to highlight sensitive cases and hired protesters to disturb the judicial system&&num;8221&semi;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Hu was jailed for seven and a half years on Wednesday and Zhai was given a suspended three-year sentence on Tuesday&period; Li is being tried separately&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Zhou also &&num;8220&semi;asked administrative officers in the law firm to post anti-government comments online to stir up public sentiment&&num;8221&semi;&comma; the verdict said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Zhou established Fengrui in 2007&comma; and the following year took on one of the country&&num;8217&semi;s biggest dairies in a massive tainted infant formula scandal that the government had tried to suppress&period; The firm also represented clients targeted by the government&comma; including members of the banned Falun Gong meditation sect and activist artist Ai Weiwei&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Zhou&&num;8217&semi;s final case involved Zhang Miao&comma; a news assistant for German weekly Die Zeitm who was detained for nine months after helping with the magazine&&num;8217&semi;s coverage of pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong&period; Zhou was meeting Zhang at a hotel in suburban Beijing following her release when he was seized&comma; hooded and driven away by agents&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>This week&&num;8217&semi;s trials are part of a pattern established under the administration of President Xi Jinping to use more sophisticated legal means to attack perceived opponents as it maintains pressure on activists and non-governmental organisations&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The trials show China is intent on silencing anyone who &&num;8220&semi;raises legitimate questions about human rights and uses the legal system to seek redress&&num;8221&semi;&comma; Amnesty International said in a statement on Zhou&&num;8217&semi;s conviction&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;The authorities are using vague legal provisions as a weapon to give their politically motivated assault the veneer of legitimacy&period; When state security laws are open to such rampant abuse&comma; the law needs to change&comma;&&num;8221&semi; Roseann Rife&comma; the group&&num;8217&semi;s East Asia research director&comma; said in the statement&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Several of those detained&comma; including Zhou and fellow Fengrui lawyer Wang Yu&comma; have made televised apologies for the crimes they are accused of&comma; saying their legal activism was directed by unidentified &&num;8220&semi;hostile foreign forces&&num;8221&semi; to smear and attack the Chinese government&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Fengrui often worked with activists to gather evidence of government abuses and lead clients and the disgruntled in street protests while spreading word online&period; Their actions were harshly denounced by the authorities as thuggery and interference in the legal process&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Many family members of those being held say they and their retained lawyers have been denied access to the detainees for more than a year&comma; receiving only occasional updates by word of mouth&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Some have been briefly detained themselves while seeking information&period; Zhou and others were assigned government-appointed lawyers who worked closely with the court&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>More than a dozen of those detained last year remain in custody&comma; their legal fates still unknown&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div style&equals;"padding-bottom&colon;15px&semi;" class&equals;"wordads-tag" data-slot-type&equals;"belowpost">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div id&equals;"atatags-dynamic-belowpost-68e24b4bbc80f">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<script type&equals;"text&sol;javascript">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;window&period;getAdSnippetCallback &equals; function &lpar;&rpar; &lbrace;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;if &lpar; false &equals;&equals;&equals; &lpar; window&period;isWatlV1 &quest;&quest; false &rpar; &rpar; &lbrace;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&sol;&sol; 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