Zeng Jinyan speaks out on Hu Jia’s sentencingPublished by John Kennedy April 13th, 2008
On the day after her husband’s sentence to 3.5 years in prison for his blogging activities, house arrested blogger Zeng Jinyan wrote a letter explaining her side to their story. Here now thanks to one friendly netizen is an English translation:
Please tell me: is this a just verdict?
Zeng Jinyan, 4 April 2008
In a hearing on 3 April 2008, the court convicted Hu Jia (胡佳) and sentenced him to three years and six months imprisonment and subsequent deprivation of his political rights [1] for one year. They also confiscated his laptop computer, his wireless internet access card, his WiFi router, ZTE ADSL modem, an internet access card, one sheet of A4 printer paper with Cai Chu’s (蔡楚) e-mail address written on it, and his PHS limited-range mobile phone.
After the verdict was announced, I had to struggle with the state security squad police just for the right to walk by myself. They dropped me off at the Babaoshan subway station exit. A group of friends, some of whom I recognised, came running up to meet me. Many of them asked me: ‘Is this a just verdict?’
Now let me ask you: if someone in your family got sentenced to three and a half years imprisonment and one year of deprivation of their political rights for writing five articles and giving two interviews, having already been subjected to long term house arrest – would you think that just?
And let me ask President Hu Jintao and our various leaders responsible for the administration of justice: given that the Constitution accords priority to the protection of freedom of speech, does a verdict of three and a half years of imprisonment and one year of deprivation of one’s political rights for writing five articles and giving two interviews manifest the ‘spirit of the rule of law’? Does it exhibit the justice of our judicial system?
[more]
http://advocacy.globalvoicesonline.org/2008/04/13/zeng-jinyan-speaks-out-on-hu-jias-sentencing/
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