ZHAI YANMIN, an unemployed resident of Beijing, was sentenced yesterday to three years in prison with a four-year reprieve after being found guilty of subverting state power.

    The ruling was handed down by the No. 2 Intermediate People’s Court of Tianjin in a first-instant open trial held in the day.

    The verdict said that Zhai, 55, “had long been influenced by anti-China forces,” and began publishing statements and comments online in 2012. He also manipulated public opinion and organized several protests to draw international attention and undermine the State with lawyer Zhou Shifeng after joining an unregistered organization led by another man named Hu Shigen, the statement said. Zhou and Hu are being prosecuted in separate cases.

    The court ruled that Zhai committed the crime of subversion, damaging national security and social stability.

    The court was told that Zhai, together with three others — Hu, Zhou, and Li Heping — had conspired and plotted to subvert state power, and had “established a systematic ideology, method and step to achieve it.”

    Zhai was convicted of “subverting state power” for acts including waving banners and shouting slogans in four protests since 2014, the official Xinhua News Agency.

    The court ruled that “through illegal and provocative assemblies in public places” Zhai had “attacked the national legal system,” Xinhua said.

    Evidence presented at the trial, which apparently lasted only a few hours, included banners, books and “audio and video recordings,” Xinhua said.

    Zhai, who was arrested in July last year, was also deprived of his political rights for four years, according to the court verdict.

    Zhai pled guilty and cooperated with judicial organs following his arrest, which could be regarded as the reason for the reprieve and his lighter punishment, the court said.

    Zhai said he accepted the verdict and would not appeal.

    Zhai’s three-year sentence was suspended for four years, meaning that although he won’t go to prison, he will have to live under considerable restrictions and supervision. He can be sent to prison to serve his sentence for disobeying the rules set for his release during the four-year period.

    A three-year sentence is the minimum allowed for those convicted of subversion, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.

    The trial was attended by five foreign media outlets invited by the court and other observers.

    (SD-Xinhua)