Chinese Activist's Sentence Is Reaffirmed

BEIJING, Dec. 1 -- The controversial four-year, three-month prison sentence given to a blind legal activist for disrupting traffic and damaging property was upheld by a Chinese court Friday morning and immediately condemned by the activist's attorneys.

"We hereby express our strongest condemnation about this verdict," said Teng Biao, a lawyer assisting the defense team. "We will go after the criminal activities such as the torture and kidnapping of witnesses, the detention and beating of lawyers and illegal house arrest."

Teng was referring to the repeated interruptions of the case and the mistreatment of defendant Chen Guangcheng, which has attracted worldwide attention and criticism from human rights activists and diplomats.

Chen, a self-taught legal activist blinded by a childhood illness, embarrassed local officials in eastern Shandong province by exposing abuses in their enforcement of China's one-child-only policy. After Chen helped file an unprecedented class-action lawsuit on behalf of thousands of men and women who had been forced to have sterilizations and abortions, he and his supporters were beaten, harassed and placed under house arrest.

The traffic and property damage charges are in connection with a protest in Chen's home village this year. His attorneys say the charges were trumped up in retaliation for Chen's activism. After a trial in which Chen was deprived of his defense team, he was sentenced in August. He appealed to the Linyi City Intermediate Court, which in an unusual move agreed to the retrial, citing a lack of evidence. The case was sent back to the Yinan People's Court.

The retrial kicked off in Shandong on Monday, and three defense witnesses were prevented from testifying, Chen's attorneys said. Two of those witnesses were detained before the trial and the third was kidnapped by several men in plainclothes, they said.

Chen Guangfu, Chen's eldest brother, was in court at 9:30 Friday morning to hear the verdict. The activist's attorneys said they would make a second appeal to the Linyi Intermediate Court.