Chinese Legal Activist Sentenced to Four-Year Prison Term
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Chinese activist and legal scholar Xu Zhiyong has been sentenced to four years in prison on charges of gathering a crowd to disturb public order in the most prominent case in a crackdown on dissent since President Xi Jinping came to power.
Xu, 40, was sentenced by the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court yesterday, the court said on its official Weibo account. While he was not given a formal opportunity to respond, Xu told the court that “the last dignity of Chinese law has been destroyed,” his lawyer Zhang Qingfang said by telephone.