Unjust sentence against professor for literature from Nanjing Former university professor sentenced to ten years imprisonment for appeals for democracy

The former professor for literature, Guo Quan, from Nanjing, the Chinese partner town of Göttingen, Leipzig, Stuttgart and Friedrichshafen, has been sentenced to ten years imprisonment because he spoke out for the democratisation of China. Thereafter his political rights will be withdrawn for three years. The Society for Threatened Peoples STP (Gesellschaft für bedrohte Völker GfbV) criticised the verdict which was announced last Friday as being unjust since Guo Quan was only making use of his constitutional rights in China. "Guo Quan’s only crime is that of speaking out in petitions and open letters for the democratisation of the system of government”, said the STP Asia consultant, Ulrich Delius, on Tuesday in Göttingen. The sentence passed against him for ‘subversion of state power’ violates both Chinese law and international norms of justice.”

It is perfectly legal in China to present petitions to the government. The court has also infringed Chinese criminal justice law because the penalty was pronounced more than four months after the court case, which was opened on 20th June 2009 at the Intermediate People’s Court in Suquian (Province Jiangsu). Chinese criminal justice law requires the penalty to be pronounced within six weeks of the verdict. "It is clear that the intention is at all costs to criminalise, lock away and muzzle”, said Delius. All that Guo Quan did was to exercise his right to freedom of expression as guaranteed by the constitution.

In four open letters to the Chinese leaders Guo Quan had called for a multi-party system and the democratisation of the country. When the Chinese leaders in November 2007 rejected democratisation with the argument that China’s people were not yet mature enough for democracy he called on China’s leaders to finally have trust in its own people and to implement reforms which had been announced.

The professor was then demoted in December 2007 to the rank of clerk. In the USA Guo Quan had brought a charge against the internet provider Yahoo because the company had bowed under the pressure of the Chinese authorities and closed all entries under the name of the dissenter.

Further information is available from the GfbV Asia consultant, Ulrich Delius, at asien@gfbv.de