29 ENE2016
A Chinese court today sentenced Tang Jingling to five years in prison, un reconocido abogado de derechos humanos al que se conoce en algunos círculos como el "Gandhi chino", for the peaceful campaign of disobedience that he has promoted to achieve democratic reforms in China.
A court in the city of Canton (on) declaró hoy a Tang culpable de "incitar a la subversión del poder del Estado", a crime commonly used against dissidents, and decided to impose one of the highest sentences for this crime, explained one of his lawyers, Ge Yongxi.
"Es una sentencia equivocadísima. with his sentence, The Communist Party (from China, CCP) y el tribunal admiten la contribución de Tang a la democracia y a la libertad en China", Gui told Efe.
Gui considera que se le ha impuesto una pena tan alta porque el "PCCh piensa que la ideología de Tang puede dañar a la dictadura".
At the moment, the lawyer and activist 44 years has ruled out filing an appeal, since he considers it useless in a judicial system controlled by the Government. "Apelaré al pueblo y a Dios", said Tang after hearing his sentence.
The lawyer has worked on cases related to the corruption of politicians, about evictions or human rights defenders persecuted by the regime.
The cases he accepted led to him losing his law license in 2006, pero Tang no dejó de ejercer y acabó en una "cárcel negra" (illegal detention centers) in 2011 por apoyar la "revolución del jazmín", a movement that was then promoted in China imitating those that spread through several Arab countries.
He reported that during his period of confinement he was mistreated, pero eso no le impidió seguir abogando por reformas democráticas a su salida y continuar con casos "sensibles".
The intermediate court of Canton also sentenced two other activists this Friday, writer Yuan Xinting and professor Wang Qingying, to three and a half and two and a half years in prison, respectively, for the same crime.
The three were arrested in 2014 acusados de "alteración del orden", after they promoted peaceful civil disobedience movements in the midst of the repression campaign experienced by the 25 Tiananmen massacre anniversary.
The authorities later modified their accusation to raise it to a felony and in total they have been detained 17 months, a period in which the Tang family, For example, He has only been able to see him twice..
Several human rights organizations recalled that this sentence occurs at a time when the pressure on groups of lawyers or activists is very high., due to the intense campaign of repression promoted by President Xi Jinping, which already includes a long list of arrested and imprisoned.
"El Gobierno chino necesita parar de equiparar las críticas pacíficas con la subversión si está dispuesto a progresar de alguna manera en el respeto de los derechos", says Sophie Richardson, China director of Human Rights Watch, In a statement.
