Reports from China say a court has sentenced a pro-democracy activist to 10 years in jail for allegedly subverting China’s communist rule.
The Hong Kong-based China Human Rights Defenders group said activist Li Tie was sentenced by the Intermediate People’s Court in Wuhan, central China, to 10 years after he was convicted of subversion over articles he had written.
Chinese Human Rights Defenders reported that Li said in court that he is innocent because the Chinese Constitution says that citizens have the right to freedom of expression.
It is the third lengthy jail term that has been handed to a Chinese dissident in less than a month.
In separate cases in December, two activists were sentenced -- one to nine years in prison, the other to 10 -- for posting essays on the Internet that the government considered offensive to its one-party rule.
compiled from agency reports