Blind Chinese activist’s sentence upheld

The Yinan People’s Court has upheld the three year and four month sentence for “willfully damaging property” and “organizing a mob to disturb traffic” against Chen Guangcheng, a blind human rights activist in China. The charges stem from a protest against human rights violations in Chen’s home town. Chen’s lawyers assert that the charges are trumped up fabrications to penalize him for his vocal denouncement of local officials physically forcing sterilizations and abortions to uphold China’s ‘one-child’ policy in the eastern Shandong province.

At Chen’s initial trial, he was denied proper legal counsel because all three of his lawyers had been arrested just the day before on charges of “stealing a wallet.” Chen was first placed under house arrest in August 2005 after filing a class action lawsuit to protest the more than 120,000 claims by local inhabitants of Shandong of forced abortions and sterilizations at the order of local officials.  When the abuses were brought to national and international attention, senior family planning officials in Beijing immediately condemned the activities of the local officials saying that their actions were “definitely illegal” and claimed that an investigation into possible abuses would be carried out.

Teng Biao, one of Chen’s present lawyers, immediately condemned the upheld verdict saying, “We hereby express our strongest condemnation about this verdict. We will go after the criminal activities such as the torture and kidnapping of witnesses [three key ones disappeared], the detention and beating of lawyers and illegal house arrest. ”  Chen’s wife and brother were allowed to testify for him and Chen was allowed 30 minutes to defend himself. Chen’s legal team said that they would appeal the verdict once again to the Linyi City Intermediate Court.  www.LifeSiteNews.com