Court in China sentences dissident to 10 years on subversion charges

A court in China yesterday sentenced veteran dissident, Chen Xi, to 10 years in jail for subversion, Reuters reported quoting his wife.

The sentence is one of the harshest for political dissidence since Nobel Prize winner Liu Xiaobo was jailed two years ago.

Chen's wife told Reuters by phone that the court in Guiyang in southwest China that tried Chen quickly found him guilty of "inciting subversion of state power." The court observed he deserved a tough sentence of a decade in prison she said.

Chen Xi, 57, was convicted for writing 36 essays that criticised the Communist Party and publishing them on overseas Chinese websites, she said. She added the trial took about two and half hours.

According to analysts, the subversion charge is often brought against dissidents and the country's party-run courts invariably rule against defendants, especially for political charges.

With a leadership handover in the offing late next year, Communist Party chiefs are keen on fending off political challenges and nip them off in bud. according to analysts.