US, Germany and France call on China to release a human rights lawyer and his wife accused of subversion

BEIJING (AP) — The United States, Germany and France have called for the release of a Chinese human rights lawyer and his wife who were sentenced this week to prison for alleged subversion.

A court in Suzhou on Tuesday sentenced lawyer Yu Wensheng to three years in prison and his wife Xu Yan to one year and nine months in prison after finding her guilty of inciting the subversion of state power.

“These sentences demonstrate (China’s) ongoing efforts to silence those who speak out in the name of human rights and the rule of law,” U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Friday. He said Yu and Xu should be released immediately and unconditionally.

The European Union and the foreign ministries of Germany and France also made statements calling for the release of these people.

Yu had been vocal in defending the rights of other human rights lawyers during a 2015 crackdown when Chinese authorities began arresting prominent rights defenders.

HE He wrote an open letter to He went to senior national authorities and called on them to investigate the Ministry of Public Security, saying the police had “created an atmosphere of terror in the country, openly violated the criminal law and committed acts against humanity.”

Yu was arrested and sentenced to four years in prison on charges of subverting state power, and Xu openly advocated on his behalf. He was released in 2022.

In April last year, Yu and Xu were detained by police on their way to the European Union delegation in Beijing.

They were then taken to Suzhou, where their sentences were handed down by the Suzhou Intermediate People’s Court. It is unclear why they moved from Beijing to Suzhou. Calls to the court were not answered.

Amnesty International said Yu and Xu’s son, who turned 18 just before their detention, had suffered a “serious deterioration in mental health” since his parents’ arrest and was now suffering from depression.