Third prominent dissident faces 'tofu buildings' subversion trial

A veteran mainland dissident will stand trial on Friday on a subversion charge for advocating street protests and lambasting corrupt officials over the deaths of thousands of schoolchildren in the 2008 earthquake in Sichuan .

The Suining Intermediate People's Court will hear Sichuan-based political activist Liu Xianbin's case on suspicion of 'inciting subversion of state power' in five of his articles, which had been published and widely circulated on the internet, Chen Mingxian , Liu's wife, said yesterday.

'I have been totally in the dark about the date of the trial before Ma Xiaopeng , the lawyer representing my husband, told me on Monday,' said Chen.

Her husband's appeals for street protests and the release of Tan Zuoren and Huang Qi were the main reasons for his arrest in late June, she said.

Liu could become the third prominent mainland activist to be jailed for urging an investigation of the so-called tofu buildings.

Both Tan and Huang were jailed for their persistence in looking into the shoddy buildings, which were widely considered the main cause of the deaths of students in the quake.

As one of the student leaders during the Tiananmen protests in 1989 and a founding member of the Chinese Democratic Party later, Liu is committed to fighting for democratic reform and, as a result, spent a total of 13 years in jail for political activities before his release in late 2008.