Xu Zhiyong, 50, and Ding Jiaxi, 55, went on trial behind closed doors in June last year on charges of state subversion at a court in Linshu county in the northeastern province of Shandong, relatives told Reuters at the time.
Xu and Ding are prominent figures in the New Citizens Movement, which sought greater transparency into the wealth of officials and for Chinese citizens to be able to exercise their civil rights as written in the constitution.
Ding’s wife Luo Shengchun, who lives in the United States and has pursued his case with U.S. State Department officials, told Reuters about the sentencing but said she had no further details.
“Their lawyers are forbidden from publishing court verdict documents and they do not dare to reveal where they were sentenced and under what charges,” she said by telephone.
She will keep pressing for information, she added.
“I will not let them put Ding Jiaxi and Xu Zhiyong in jail so easily.”
Xu…
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