Verdict more lenient than expected: lawyers
A Chinese civil rights lawyer given a suspended three-year prison term on Tuesday for inciting ethnic hatred and provoking trouble will not appeal, one of his attorneys said.
Pu Zhiqiang was sentenced by the Beijing No.2 Intermediate People's Court a week after he was tried.
He has been released from detention as of Tuesday night.
Mo Shaoping, one of Pu's attorneys, confirmed with the Global Times on Tuesday that Pu will not appeal the verdict.
Pu believes that under current circumstances, chances for a higher court to reverse the verdict are very slim, Mo said.
"Pu acknowledged that he wrote those posts. He also admitted that some of the posts were rude and wrong, but he does not think doing so constitutes a crime," Mo said, referring to seven of Pu's Weibo posts cited as evidence.
According to the Xinhua News Agency, which cited the court, Pu, 50, had admitted to the charges and showed regret. The court had, therefore, decided on a lenient sentence.
One of Pu's lawyers, Shang Baojun, previously confirmed with the Global Times that the prosecutors cited seven of Pu's Weibo posts as evidence. Among them, four were used as evidence to prove he was inciting ethnic hatred and three for provoking trouble.
According to a China Central Television (CCTV) news report, one of Pu's Weibo posts after the deadly terror attack at the Kunming Railway Station in March 2014 included criticism of government policies in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
"If the people are not afraid of death, it's useless to threaten them with death. The attackers are eager to become martyrs of Allah, … the Xinjiang policies need to be adjusted," the Weibo post reads.
Eight people believed to be religious extremists from Xinjiang staged a knife attack at the railway station in Kunming, Southwest China's Yunnan Province in 2014, killing more than 30 people.
The court said Tuesday that Pu continued to post inflammatory content despite warnings from website administrators, and that his behavior proves he intended to fan ethnic hatred, according to Xinhua.
The court also said Pu's insulting posts, which had been reposted some 900 times and received over 500 comments, caused disorder in cyberspace and negative social impact, leading the court to believe his behavior had constituted the crime of "picking quarrels and provoking trouble."
As of Tuesday afternoon Pu had reunited with his wife in an undisclosed location away from his home, according to Shang.
Shang declined a request from the Global Times to interview Pu, citing his probation.
