奧運會使世界特別關注中國，西藏暴力騷亂更是引起國際社會廣泛關注，中國政府誓言要同"藏獨分子"展開一場激烈的戰鬥。但除了分裂主義分子，中國政府對待其他異議人士也向來是不留情面。中國著名人權維權人士胡佳4月3日被北京人民法院判處3年零6個月有期徒刑。
4月3日，中國著名維權人士胡佳被北京市第一中級法院以煽動顛覆國家政權罪判處3年零6個月有期徒刑。對中國當局來說，胡佳在網上發表的六 篇文章，以及兩次接受外國媒體採訪，足以構成犯罪，因此應該受到懲罰。他們認為，胡佳發表的文章內容危及了國家統治。辯護律師李方平形容胡佳文章的用詞雖 然犀利，但是不含任何反動內容。李方平極力為胡佳爭取無罪獲釋，並對現在的判決深表失望：“我們作為律師對判決無法接受。我建議胡佳提出上訴。胡佳的妻子 和媽媽也對判決表示悲痛。但是是否上訴要尊重胡佳本人的意見，要等見到他之後才能決定。”
胡佳及其辯護律師有10天的時間可以決定是否提出上訴。胡佳患有嚴重的肝硬化，依賴藥物治療。如果胡佳同意上訴，李方平律師希望能說服法院，考慮胡 佳的健康狀況，不適合長期監獄服刑而二審更改裁決：“我們也會考慮，如果他不上訴，或是二審維持原判，我們會為胡佳辦理保外就醫手續。胡佳在整個審判過程 中沒有說一句話。法官也沒有讓胡佳當庭表示是否上訴。”
儘管身體狀況很不好，但是胡佳仍然給人一個勇敢、堅強的硬漢形象。多年以來，胡佳一直積極從事維權工作，而不惜冒犯官方。幾年前，胡佳和同仁將政府 企圖掩蓋的一起愛滋病醜聞曝光。自此以後，他經常受到當局監控並遭到軟禁。去年，胡佳發表了文章和書信，並在其中寫道：08奧運會將在一個無視人權的國家 舉行，並形容北京奧運會為"一場踐踏人權的大災難"。之後，胡佳在北京的家中被捕。胡佳的妻子和只有幾個月大的女兒從此遭受軟禁，只能在監視下出門行動。 為了切斷胡佳妻子同媒體公眾的聯繫，當局還沒收了其電話和電腦。
人權組織指責中國政府在奧運召開前夕有目標的展開"清洗活動"，剷除異議人士。另一名維權人士，來自黑龍江的楊春林，也因為農民爭取權益，並發起" 我們要人權，不要奧運"的簽名徵集活動而被判處5年有期徒刑，罪名也是煽動顛覆國家政權。對胡佳的判決雖然沒有預想的嚴重，但是李方平律師還是無法接受法 院的判決，因為胡佳根本無罪。
Chinese Rights Activist Is Jailed
BEIJING — A Chinese court sentenced an outspoken human rights advocate on Thursday to three and a half years in prison after ruling that his critical essays and comments about Communist Party rule amounted to inciting subversion, his lawyer said.
The Chinese dissident Hu Jia at his Beijing apartment in December.
The conviction of the advocate, Hu Jia, 34, one of the most prominent human rights proponents in China, has quickly drawn outside criticism of China at a time when its government is already facing international concern over its handling of the Tibetan crisis.
Mr. Hu’s case has been followed closely, especially in Europe, and critics say his conviction is part of a government crackdown to silence dissidents before Beijing plays host to the Olympic Games in August.
In Bucharest, Romania, where President Bush was attending the NATO meetings, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice criticized the sentence and said that the United States would continue to raise the issue of human rights with Chinese leaders in the months leading up to the Olympics in Beijing.
"This is a long process," she said. "We do it respectfully with China, but there is no doubt that this is a decision that is deeply disturbing to us, and we’re communicating that to the Chinese authorities."
Mr. Hu’s wife, Zeng Jinyan, herself a well-known blogger and rights advocate, was distraught in a telephone interview on Thursday.
“I feel hopeless and helpless,” said Ms. Zeng, who is under house arrest with the couple’s infant daughter in their suburban Beijing apartment, though she was allowed to visit her husband on Thursday.
Asked why Mr. Hu was arrested and convicted, she said: “The fundamental reason is to silence him. He had been speaking up and all he said was plain truth. It makes them unhappy. But they can do this to him because they’re unhappy?”
Earlier this year, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice raised Mr. Hu’s case during a meeting with China’s foreign minister, Yang Jiechi. The European Union presidency has criticized the subversion charge and called for Mr. Hu’s release.
Li Fangping, the defense lawyer, said the court showed leniency by sentencing him for less than the maximum five-year term. The sentence also forbids Mr. Hu to make any public political statements for one year after his release from prison, Mr. Li said.
“Three and a half years is still unacceptable to us,” Mr. Li told a throng of reporters outside the courthouse. “There is a major disagreement between prosecutors and the defense over punishing someone for making peaceful speech. We still believe the charge does not stand.”
Prosecutors in China rarely discuss cases after a verdict. But Xinhua, the country’s official news agency, reported that Mr. Hu had confessed to the charges. “Hu spread malicious rumors and committed libel in an attempt to subvert the state’s political power and socialist system,” the court verdict stated, according to Xinhua.
In his human rights work, Mr. Hu has volunteered to help AIDS patients and plant trees to fight the encroachment of desert.
In recent years, he has maintained regular contacts with dissidents and other advocates on issues that include environmental protection and legal reform. He has also served as a one-man clearinghouse for information about peasant protests and dissidents, subjects that are often censored in the Chinese media.
He was detained on Dec. 27 last year and later charged with “incitement to subvert state power,” an accusation based on six essays and interviews in which he criticized the Communist Party. Mr. Hu wrote a long, blistering essay detailing how police had tortured two people who had protested the illegal seizure of their homes in Beijing. In that essay, he also criticized the Communist Party’s human rights record.
Mr. Hu posted the essay on his personal blog at a delicate time: in advance of last fall’s 17th Party Congress, a major political meeting in which the new party leadership was announced.
In another blog posting, Mr. Hu wrote about China’s political formulation known as “one country, two systems” under which Hong Kong is part of China yet is allowed a more democratic political system. Mr. Hu argued that all of China should be democratic.
Last year, Mr. Hu was also co-writer of an article that contended that the Communist Party had failed to fulfill its Olympic promises to improve human rights before the Beijing Games, though that article apparently was not included as evidence.
Mr. Li said that Mr. Hu continued to maintain his innocence, though he had acknowledged outside the courtroom that some of his comments were “excessive” in the context of existing law. All of the articles used as evidence have been censored on China’s Internet.
China’s subversion laws, like those over state secrets, are deliberately vague and grant prosecutors considerable leeway in determining subversive speech, even though freedom of speech is included in the Chinese Constitution.
“The line between ‘freedom of speech’ and ‘endangering state security’ is very ambiguous,” Mr. Li, the defense lawyer, said. “In the criminal law, the article concerning subversion of state power contains only 30 words. And neither lawmakers nor the judicial branch have given any further explanation.”
He added that the defense team had tried during the trial to clarify what constituted free speech, and what did not. “Only in that way can we protect the freedom of speech from being restrained or disregarded in the name of state security,” Mr. Li said.
Human rights groups have called for Mr. Hu’s release and condemned his arrest and conviction.
Mr. Hu now has 10 days to decide whether to appeal the verdict. His health is also an issue; he has hepatitis B and also takes medication for a deteriorating liver condition. Mr. Li said Mr. Hu had the option of applying for medical parole if he chose not to appeal.
Meanwhile, Ms. Zeng, Mr. Hu’s wife, was anguished. “I’m very disappointed and very pained,” she said. “Yesterday, I thought he could be back home today.”
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