Activist avoids jail for ‘subversion of state power’ in China

A court in China has imposed a three-year suspended sentence on a human rights activist charged with subversion of state power, following a brief trial.

It was the first publicly acknowledged hearing in a year-long case shrouded in secrecy and involving hundreds of activists.

The official Xinhua News Agency said a court in Tianjin sentenced Zhai Yanmin, who was arrested in July last year as part of a government campaign which paralysed China’s activist legal circles. Some 300 lawyers and activists were seized and questioned.