Head of Beijing law firm gets seven years as crackdown on rights activists continues
Zhou Shifeng, whose practice took on prominent rights cases, is convicted of subversion in Tianjin court
The former director of a Beijing law firm at the centre of a sweeping government crackdown on human rights activists last year was sentenced to seven years in jail for subversion on Thursday.
Zhou Shifeng, 51, was the first lawyer to face trial among the two dozen human rights activists and lawyers formally arrested last July. About 300 suspects were detained or interrogated in the so-called 709 crackdown, named after the date of the first arrests on July 9 last year.
Zhou pleaded guilty to subverting state power and pledged no appeal after a hearing lasting less than three hours at the Tianjin No 2 Intermediate People’s Court yesterday morning.
The court ruled that Zhou had on many occasions made comments online and in person to “attack the socialist system, the fundamental policy of one country, two systems, and to incite confrontation against state power”.
He was also guilty of ordering his staff and other lawyers to “hype up sensitive cases to discredit judicial authorities, attack the country’s judicial system and incite hostility towards state power” through representing the cases, the court heard.