MCLC: Ni Yulan jailed for fraud

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: Anne Henochowicz <annemh at alumni.upenn.edu>
Subject: Ni Yulan jailed for fraud
***********************************************************

Source: Al Jazeera (4/10/12):
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia-pacific/2012/04/201241043016856621.html

Chinese activist jailed on fraud charges
Ni Yulan's sentence seen as punishment for her legal defence of people
displaced by real-estate projects in Beijing.

A Chinese activist rendered disabled by prior police treatment has
been sentenced to a jail term of two years and eight months on charges
of fraud and provoking trouble.

Ni Yulan was sentenced by a Beijing court on Tuesday. Ni's husband,
Dong Jiqin, was also given a two-year jail term.

Husband and wife were arrested last year in a crackdown to deter
popular uprisings, that China feared could resemble the ones in many
Arab states.

Ni was convicted of causing a disturbance at a hotel where they had
been detained by police. The court said the couple failed to pay
69,972 yuan ($11,100) in hotel bills between June 2010 and April 2011.

Ni was also convicted of posing as a lawyer and receiving 5,000 yuan
through deceit ($795).

The EU issued a statement in front of the court Tuesday saying it was
"deeply concerned" about Ni's sentence and that because of her poor
health she should be released immediately.

"The European Union is preoccupied with the deterioration of the
situation for human rights defenders in China and will continue to
follow these cases attentively," the statement read.

Heavy security

The sentencing took place under heavy security. The access road to the
courthouse was cordoned off with a temporary checkpoint.

Dozens of police officers and neighbourhood watch members patrolled
outside the courthouse and kept an eye on foreign journalists and
diplomats from the United States and Europe.

Ni's daughter, Dong Xuan, said she was allowed in the court but was
later taken away and briefly detained by police.

Ni and her supporters deny the charges and say she is being punished
for her years of activism, especially her advocacy for people forced
from their homes to make way for the fast-paced real-estate
development that remade Beijing for the 2008 Olympics.

Ni has been jailed twice before. In a June 2010 interview with the
Associated Press news agency, she described abuse she suffered at the
hands of police, saying that guards had beaten her, insulted her and
urinated on her face.

While in detention in 2002, police pinned her down and kicked her
knees until she was unable to walk, she said.

While serving her second prison term, Ni said she was deprived of her
crutches and had to crawl up and down five stories and across the
prison yard every day for months.