Dharamsala, February 10 – The Chengdu Municipal Intermediate People’s Court has sentenced a Sichuan-based writer and environmental activist to a five-year prison term and three years’ deprivation of political rights, according New York based Human Rights in China.
Tan Zuoren was accused of “inciting subversion of state power”. Citing a source, HRIC says police led Tan away after the court hearing as he shouted, “It is my honor to go to prison for the people of my hometown”. Tan’s family said they will appeal to a higher court.
Tan was the editor-in-chief of “Wenhua Ren” magazine. After the Sichuan earthquake, he and Xie Yihui conducted a nearly three-month investigation by interviewing families who lost their children in the collapsed schools. They published their findings in an online report titled “Independent Investigative Report By Citizens,” in which they criticized the government for not conducting a thorough investigation into the causes of the collapse of the schools and for under-reporting the number of victims. Tan was detained on March 28, 2009, three days after the publication of the report.
The court’s indictment, however, did not mention Tan’s earthquake investigation or its findings as constituting “incitement to subvert state power.” Instead, it listed as evidence a 2007 article that Tan wrote about the 1989 Democracy Movement, a proposal for a blood drive to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the government’s crackdown on the 1989 Democracy Movement, and interviews that Tan gave to foreign media about the 2008 earthquake, HRIC alleges.
Tan Zuoren, was first tried on August 12, 2009 but the court did not reach any decision. Well known artist Ai Weiwei had travelled from Beijing to Chengdu to attend the trial as a witness for Tan but beaten by Chengdu police and detained in his hotel room for 11 hours.
“Yet again, a Chinese citizen is punished for exercising his right to freedom of expression,” said Sharon Hom, executive director of Human Rights in China. “Tan Zuoren’s conviction and sentence remind us once again that the Chinese government continues to refuse to take responsibility for its actions during the June Fourth crackdown and for the corruption that led to the deaths of innocent children.”
