Update | Chinese court hands down harsh jail sentences to New Citizen Movement activists
Three participants of campaign for official transparency receive the toughest prison sentences so far in authorities' crackdown on the group
Three mainland activists fighting for officials to disclose their assets have been given the toughest jail sentences yet in the authorities' crackdown on the New Citizen movement.
A court in Jiangxi province yesterday jailed Liu Ping and Wei Zhongping for 6½ years and handed Li Sihua a three-year sentence, according to Li's lawyer.
All three were convicted of "picking quarrels and provoking trouble", while Liu and Wei were also found guilty of "gathering a crowd to disrupt public order in a public space" and "using an evil cult to undermine law enforcement".
They are prisoners of conscience and should be released
The three participants of the New Citizen movement posted photographs of themselves online last year holding banners urging government officials to disclose their assets as a curb against corruption.
The movement is a loosely organised collection of activists calling for government transparency and an end to official corruption.
An initiator of the group, Xu Zhiyong, a university lecturer in Beijing, was imprisoned for four years in January for disrupting public order.
Legal experts and rights groups said the trials showed the government's resolve in muzzling critics and stamping out organised street protests, even if their demands appeared consistent with President Xi Jinping's goals of fighting corruption and reforming the judicial system.
Dozens of others linked to the movement have been detained and prosecuted, according to Amnesty International China researcher William Nee.