Threats, torture, intimidation: legal experts raise suspicions of coercion in trials of Chinese rights activists

Mainland authorities appeared determined to present the first round of trials of activists and lawyers swept up in a year-long crackdown as transparent and fair, although some legal experts have questioned whether the defendants were coerced.

A court in Tianjin on Friday wrapped up the string of hearings by delivering a three-year suspended sentence to activist Gou Hongguo. Earlier, the court handed Zhou Shifeng, the head of Fengrui law firm, a seven-year term, Hu Shigen, the head of an underground church, a 7 1/2-year term, and activist Zhai Yanmin a three-year sentence, suspended for four years.

The campaign launched on July 9 last year saw about 300 rights activists rounded up and detained, although most have since been released. It was widely seen as an attack on civil society.

“I believed this incident came under high oppression,” said Albert Ho Chun-yan, a member of the Hong Kong-based non-profit organisation China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group.

“Over the past year, the mainland authority has done everything they can, including threatening, torture or even intimidating them ... [using] the well-being of their family members, in an attempt to get them succumb.”