Journalist gets jail time

2008-11-21 16:05

Beijing - A Chinese writer and journalist who was arrested after protesting against a power plant in southwest China was sentenced Friday to three years in prison on charges of subverting state power, his lawyer said.

Chen Daojun was sentenced in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province, in a trial lasting a little more than 30 minutes, said Beijing-based lawyer Zhu Jiufu.

Three of Chen's articles were presented in court as evidence that he attacked the Communist Party, Zhu said.

"In my opinion, he was only criticising the party, and never said he would subvert it," Zhu said.

Calls rang unanswered on Friday at the Chengdu Intermediate Court.

"I was so scared when I entered the court," Chen's wife Zeng Qirong said in a telephone interview.

Chen was detained five days after he participated in a demonstration on May 4 against the building of an ethylene plant and oil refinery in Pengzhou near Chengdu, his wife said.

State media said about 200 people marched against plans to build the petrochemical plant because they believed it would seriously pollute Chengdu's air and water. Ethylene is a common industrial chemical that can be fatal in high concentrations.

The Sichuan Environmental Protection bureau has defended the project, saying it meets government environmental standards.

Zhu said Chen believed the real reason he was sentenced was for his role in the protest, although the court did not bring this up.

The court also changed the charge against him at the last minute, he said, from trying to split the country to inciting subversion of the state.

Chen's other lawyer, Xiang Yang, from Sichuan, was also unable to attend the trial because he was summoned by the local justice bureau Friday to ask why he accepted the case, Zhu said. Justice bureaus are controlled by the government and regulate lawyer's licenses. The Chengdu justice bureau could not be immediately reached for comment.

Chen worked for eight years on a Communist Party internal newspaper in Chengdu before becoming an editor at the Sichuan Daily, according to a friend, Li Yuanze.

PEN, the international organization that monitors human rights abuses against writers, said Chen wrote essays and articles for overseas Chinese media in the last few years.

He also supported the rights of Tibetans, it said.

- AP