A prominent Chinese human rights lawyer who used to act for artist Ai Weiwei has been charged with inciting ethnic hatred and “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” – offences that carry a 10-year jail sentence.
Pu Zhiqiang has been in detention in China for more than a year, with no access to his family, but he has been allowed visits from his lawyers, including this month.
He was arrested in 2014 in the runup to the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, after attending a seminar about the crackdown with journalists, lawyers, scholars and activists. The government had until 20 May this year to send his case to trial or release him.
As well as representing Ai, Pu has worked on a number of high-profile cases, recently, including a Tibetan environmentalist and woman who was sent to a labour camp for protesting against light sentences handed down to her daughter’s rapists.
“Do the Beijing police think they can make us believe Pu Zhiqiang is being charged for anything else than being a courageous lawyer?” Nicholas Becquelin, Amnesty International’s regional director for east Asia, tweeted.
The charges come on the eve of a visit by the US secretary of state, John Kerry. China rebuked the US when it called for Pu’s release earlier this month, and the charges may add to strain on a trip already complicated by tensions over the South China Sea.
Pu’s lawyer said two of the original charges his client faced had been dropped, and they expect a verdict in about three months. Time served would count towards any sentence. “We argued that there aren’t substantial cases for all four charges, and the procuratorate has partially taken our argument into consideration,” said Pu’s lawyer, Mo Shaoping.
All the charges are thought to be based on about 30 outspoken blogposts. He described harsh government controls in restive Xinjiang and Tibet as “ridiculous national policy”, and also attacked a now-disgraced security tsar for abuse of power, before his downfall.
A notice from prosecutors reads: “Defendant Pu Zhiqiang has used the internet to publish posts that incited ethnic hatred on many occasions which has caused serious consequences. He publicly insulted others and disturbed social order, which has caused serious consequences.”
The Beijing No 2 intermediate people’s procuratorate posted the notice on its microblog. Pu’s lawyers said they expect to get the indictment with details of the charges next week.
He is expected to contest the charges, according to another lawyer acting for Pu, who saw his client on 8 May. “Pu was in good state both physically and mentally,” he said. “He rejected all four charges against him last time we met and I think he would still hold the same position.”
