The United States has condemned the heavy and unjust sentencing of two prominent human rights lawyers in China in a statement issued by the U.S. Department of State on April 11.
Rights lawyers Xu Zhiyong, 50, was sentenced to 14 years in prison, and Ding Jiaxi, 55, was sentenced to 12 years in prison and deprived of political rights for three years by a court in eastern China’s Shandong Province on April 10 for supporting internationally recognized freedoms such as freedom of assembly and speech.
The sentencing was announced in Shandong on April 10, after they were first detained in December 2019.
“These sentences demonstrate the PRC’s expansive effort to intimidate and silence all aspects of civil society,” the State Department said, using the acronym for the People’s Republic of China….