Film director jailed in China for making documentary about the constitution
Shen Yongping convicted of illegal business activities. His lawyer has suggested the charge was politically motivated
A court in China on Tuesday sentenced a film director who made a documentary about constitutionalism to one year in prison for “illegal business activities”, his lawyer said.
Shen Yongping’s A Hundred Years of Constitutionalism is about the history of failed attempts to establish the rule of constitutional law in China where the Communist Party has been in power since 1949.
DVDs were distributed for free and Shen had planned to post the documentary online as a free download, his lawyer Zhang Xuezhong said.
“This charge is ridiculous. He didn’t want to make any money from this film. If anything he lost money making it,” Zhang said.
“But at least this sentence is shorter than most, mainly due to the fact that Shen was less defiant than others have been in the past.”
Shen’s conviction comes less than a month after China celebrated its first national Constitution day and in the wake of a meeting of top Communist Party officials that decreed it is a fundamental requirement to ensure the rule of law.