A mainland political activist who had already spent nearly a decade in prison was jailed for another 10 years yesterday for writing articles urging democratic reform, an unusually harsh sentence that rights groups say shows the authorities are intent on silencing their critics.

Liu Xianbin, who was convicted of 'inciting subversion of state power' by the Suining Intermediate People's Court in Sichuan, was also deprived of his political rights for two years and four months, his wife Chen Mingxian said, meaning he will be prohibited from voting, accepting interviews, making speeches or publishing when he is released.