Democracy activist gets 10 years for alleged subversion

(TibetanReview.net, Oct20, 2009)  For urging multiparty democracy for his country, China on Oct 16 sentenced Guo Quan, a former university professor and judge, to a 10-year jail term for alleged “subversion of state power”. Guo had been detained numerous times since 2007, when he founded the China New Democracy Party, which he claimed had 40 million members. He was most recently arrested in Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu Province, in Nov’08.

AP Oct 17 cited Guo's lawyer as saying Guo was accused of forming an illegal group, recruiting members and publishing articles on the Internet to "overthrow the socialist system in the name of helping the weak".

The report said the former associate professor at Nanjing Normal University and former judge in Nanjing had started publishing articles online in 2007 advocating a multiparty democratic system with elections. He addressed these to President Hu Jintao and the Chairman of the National People’s Congress Mr Wu Bangguo.

Guo’s claimed party membership of 40 million could not be verified independently, but is said to include laid-off workers, farmers who lost their land and retired soldiers.

Guo was later fired by his university.

Guo’s lawyer Guo Lianhui, has said the court’s ruling and sentence were indefensible. "This sentence is indefensible from a legal perspective, because using peaceful and rational means to petition cannot be considered subversion of state power," he was quoted as saying, speaking to Human Rights in China.  In his view “'Subversion of state power' can only be achieved by armed insurrection."

Guo was tried in early Aug’09 and the verdict exceeded the one-and-a-half month time limit for a court to conclude a case prescribed by China’s Criminal Procedure Law.