Sources told Human Rights in China that the September 29 trial of Jiangsu citizen Gu Yimin (顾义民) for “inciting subversion of state power” ended without a verdict. The trial was conducted at the Changshu Municipal People’s Court in Jiangsu Province.
Gu, 37, was arrested in June after he posted photos online about the June Fourth military crackdown of the 1989 Democracy Movement and filed a request to march on June 4.
According to Gu’s wife Xu Yan (徐燕), who attended the trial, the prosecutor argued that a line that accompanied the photos that Gu posted online—“Take down the Communist Party in 2013”—is a violation of the law, but that Gu’s lawyer, Liu Weiguo (刘卫国), entered a not-guilty defense.
Xu said that Gu, who was handcuffed during the trial, made this declaration in his final statement: “I have always thought that I am a human being, that I am a citizen, that I have the right to supervise the government! I am a taxpayer and have the right to criticize the government! I am not guilty!” Xu predicts that if the court finds him guilty, he will appeal.
Xu added that in the afternoon, the court blocked some of the netizens who had attended the trial in the morning from returning.
On September 28, the day before the trial, lawyer Liu Weiguo said in a Weibo posting that police were preventing some citizens from attending the trial. But in a Weibo posting on September 29, after the trial, Liu described a great contrast between what happened outside the courthouse—where police continued to block people from attending the trial—and what happened during the proceeding, where “the rights of the defendant and defense counsel were protected; the prosecution was courteous toward the [defense] lawyers … this was a hearing that deserved the respect of the lawyers.”
For more information on Gu Yimin, see:
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