Fergie's Tech Blog

Chinese Internet Dissident Gets 10-Year Sentence

Sumner Lemon writes on InfoWorld:

Chinese authorities have sentenced a man to 10 years in prison for posting an anti-government article on the Internet, a human rights advocacy group said.

Ren Zhiyuan, a secondary school teacher from Shandong province, was handed the sentence after being found guilty of "subversion of state power," Human Rights in China (HRIC) said in a statement. Ren was detained by police on May 10, 2005, the group said.

Citing a copy of the indictment, HRIC said Ren was detained because of an article he wrote entitled "The Road to Democracy," in which he wrote that people have the right to violently overthrown a tyrannical government. Ren was also suspected of planning the establishment of an anti-government group called Mainland Democracy Frontline, HRIC said.

During his trial, Ren plead innocent to the charges, HRIC said.

posted by Fergie @ 3/20/2006 06:36:00 AM