Human rights activist couple jailed in China | WPN World People News

Well-known disabled Chinese human rights lawyer Ni Yulan and her husband, known for their activism against land grabbing, have been sentenced to jail, triggering an outcry by rights activists.

While Ni, 51, has been sentenced to two years and eight months in prison on charges of causing disturbance and committing fraud, her husband Dong Jiqin was jailed for two years on similar charges.

After the sentencing by a Beijing court Tuesday, their daughter, Dong Xuan, said: "This is completely unfair, I urge the government to release my parents," AFP quoted her as saying.

"Both my parents looked very thin. I was unable to see my mother's face, she didn't turn around. She was in a wheelchair and looked very weak. My father saw me and asked me how I was. He told me that he was OK."

The couple has denied the charges and their supporters allege the jail terms were aimed to silence their criticism of the government.

Ni and her husband were arrested a year ago as part of a crackdown on political dissent after a spate on online calls in China urging for an Arab Spring-like uprising.

They were tried in December in a four-hour hearing that was off bounds to the media.

"We believe this verdict is unfair and a violation of the law," lawyer Cheng Hai told journalists after the sentencing Tuesday.

European Union official Raphael Droszewski, in a statement after the sentencing, expressed "deep concern" and called for Ni's immediate release.

In 2002, Ni was sentenced to a year in jail for "obstructing official business" and to two years' jail in 2008 for "harming public property".

Ni uses a wheelchair, which she and her supporters say is due to mistreatment by police. Amnesty International said her kneecaps and feet were broken when she was detained in 2002.

She said later in media interviews that she was pinned down and kicked until she was not able to walk.

Source: Southeast Asia News.Net