The case against Chinese democracy activists Ding Jiaxi and Xu Zhiyong is expected to go to court. Sources said the prosecution has filed new charges against them – “subversion of state power” – which are more serious than the charges of “sedition” they received six months ago.
A report in Hong Kong‘s English-language South China Morning Post (SCMP) on Friday (Jan. 22) said sources said the files in both their cases were classified as confidential and that lawyers would have to sign confidentiality agreements if they wanted to read them.
The South China Morning Post quoted political analysts as saying that the prosecution’s filing of new charges could signal that they will ask the court to impose heavier sentences on the two men, and that placing the case files on confidential status means authorities will not allow anyone to speak out publicly on their behalf.
Xu Zhiyong and Ding Jiaxi are currently being held at the Linshu County Detention Center in Linyi City, Shandong Province. Ding’s wife, Luo Shengchun, tweeted Thursday that lawyers Liang Xiaojun, Zhang Lei and Peng Jian went to the detention center together that afternoon and met with Xu and Ding via video.
Before this meeting, Ding Jiaxi had been out of contact with the outside world for 392 days and Xu Zhiyong for 371 days. They were arrested by authorities in December 2019 in Xiamen after organizing a seminar on building civil society.
While on the run before his arrest, Xu Zhiyong published a “Letter of Dissuasion” online publicly questioning and criticizing Xi Jinping‘s incompetent performance in the Epidemic response and the crackdown on Hong Kong’s democracy movement. The article was widely circulated online and caused a great deal of backlash.
Previously, Xu Zhiyong was arrested by the authorities in 2013 and imprisoned for four years for starting the “New Citizens Movement.
Ding Jiaxi’s wife, Luo Shengchun, who is currently in the United States, said Ding Jiaxi was “resolute” and “firm in his tone” when he met with his lawyer, and only shed tears when he heard about his daughter’s recent condition. But he said he was “willing to continue to work hard for my beliefs and was ready for anything.”
During the meeting, Ding recounted his ordeal during his “residential surveillance” in Yantai. He was interrogated by five police officers for seven days and nights, and for half a month he was given 1/4 of a steamed bun for every meal and restricted from drinking water for a week.
Xu Zhiyong said he was allowed to sleep only four hours a day for the first five days of his detention in Beijing, and only two hours for the last five days.
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