Verdict against Ding Jiaxi upheld on appeal

On 10 April 2023, the Linshu County Court in Linyi city in Shandong province convicted human rights defender Ding Jiaxi for “subversion of State power” and sentenced him to 12 years in prison, to be followed by “deprivation of political rights” for three years. According to the human rights defender’s spouse in the US, the court refused to provide the full text of the verdict to the family.

On the same day, the court also convicted human rights defender Xu Zhiyong and sentenced him to 14 years in prison. Both Xu Zhiyong and Ding Jiaxi were arrested after they organised and attended a private, peaceful gathering of human rights defenders in the city of Xiamen in December 2019, where participants discussed the future prospects of the rule of law, democratic reforms, and human rights advocacy in China. The police then launched a cross-provincial operation to detain and interrogate many of the participants.

Ding Jiaxi has been in detention since late December 2019 and was tried in a non-public session on 24 June 2022. Following the announcement of the verdict, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights immediately issued a statement expressing concerns that the verdict is “at variance with international human rights law standards” and indicated he would follow up on these cases with the Chinese authorities.

UN Special Procedures have also jointly communicated their concerns about Ding Jiaxi’s initial disappearance and subsequent detention and prosecution with the Chinese authorities on multiple occasions in 2020, 2021 and 2022. In September 2021, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention ruled that Ding Jiaxi’s fair trial rights were not guaranteed, especially in light of the torture and ill-treatment which he was subjected to during “residential surveillance at a designated location” during the early months of his arbitrary detention. The Working Group also ruled that his detention is arbitrary because the charge of “subversion of State power” under the Chinese Criminal Law is so vague that it fails to meet the principle of legal certainty, and that the human rights defender’s arrest and detention were in retaliation against his exercise of his rights to freedom of opinion, expression, assembly and association as well as his right to take part in the conduct of public affairs.

Front Line Defenders strongly condemns the verdict and sentence against Ding Jiaxi and Xu Zhiyong as it believes it is solely in retaliation against their peaceful and legitimate human rights work. We call on the relevant authorities in China to promptly quash the conviction and sentence against the two human rights defenders and immediately release them.

On 13 June 2022, the Linyi Municipal Intermediate People’s Court in Shandong province issued a notice to the defense lawyer of human rights defender Ding Jiaxi, inviting the lawyer to a pre-trial meeting at the Linshu County People’s Court on 20 June 2022. The notice indicated that the case of Ding Jiaxi, who is charged with “subversion of State power”, involves “a large amount of evidentiary materials” and is “major and complicated”. The convening of a pre-trial meeting indicates that the trial is likely to begin soon.

Ding Jiaxi was initially arrested in December 2019 on suspicion of “inciting subversion of State power”, which was later changed to the more severe charge of “subversion of State power”. The human rights defender was denied access to legal counsel until January 2021, when he was allowed to have a video call with his lawyer for the first time.

In April 2021 and February 2022, independent experts appointed by the UN Human Rights Council wrote to the Chinese government raising concerns about the arbitrary detention and prosecution of human rights defenders, including Ding Jiaxi. The Chinese government’s short reply in April 2022 merely stated the defender was in criminal detention and under investigation, and fails to address any of the substantive questions raised by the UN experts.

Prior to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights’ visit to China in late May 2022, Ding Jiaxi’s family and other family members of arbitrarily detained human rights defenders called on her to raise the cases of human rights defenders with the authorities and seek meetings with these defenders. In her end-of-visit statement, High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet said she raised “a number of specific situations and issues of concern with the Government” and will follow up on them on a “sustained basis”, but failed to disclose whether she has sought meetings with the detained defenders, which cases she raised, or how the authorities responded.

On 20 October 2021, human rights defender Ding Jiaxi's lawyer went to the Linyi Municipal Intermediate People's Court to review the case files. The court would only allow him to take notes of the files but prohibits him from taking photos or making copies of them. Due to the large number of case files to be reviewed, he told the court that simply taking physical notes would not allow him to adequately prepare his defense, and asked the court to allow him to take photos of the files. Court official refused and even demanded that he sign confidentiality documents promising to not disclose information from the case files.

In the afternoon on the same day, the lawyer met Ding Jiaxi at the detention centre. The human rights defender reported that yard time is still limited and the food lacks sufficient nutrition. He appears to be suffering from hair loss and there are pale white patches developing on his skill, possible symptoms of vitiligo. Ding Jiaxi said he is also suffering from arthritis, diarrhoea and swollen lower legs. The blankets provided by the detention centre have a pungent smell. He is not allowed to read books or newspaper and is not given paper and pens to write with.

On 21 May 2021, the Linyi Municipal Procuratorate informed Ding Jiaxi's legal counsel that it has sent his case back to the Linyi Municipal Public Security Bureau for a second round of supplementary investigation. Under the Criminal Procedure Law, only two rounds of supplementary investigation are permitted. Once the supplementary investigation has concluded and the case is sent back to the Procuratorate, the Procuratorate must then decide whether or not to prosecute within a month. The Procuratorate may extend this deadline by another 15 days if a case is deemed "major or complicated" or if the sentence might exceed one year of imprisonment.

Earlier on 19 May 2021, Ding Jiaxi was allowed another video call with his legal counsel. Ding Jiaxi told his lawyer that detainees are permitted to partake in outdoor activities for less than 30 minutes a day and that their masks are changed only once every three weeks. Due to the low quality of dental hygiene provided by the detention centre, the condition of the human rights defender's teeth is deteriorating. Ding Jiaxi also said his eyesight has deteriorated, and he has still not been given any paper or pen to write with by authorities.

On 8 March 2021, the Linyi Municipal Procuratorate in Shandong province informed Ding Jiaxi's lawyer that it has sent the human rights defender's case back to the Linyi Municipal Public Security Bureau for supplementary investigation. Under the Criminal Procedure Law, the public security bureau must complete supplementary investigation within a month, and only two rounds of supplementary investigation are permitted.

On 20 February 2021, the Linyi Municipal Procuratorate informed Ding Jiaxi's lawyers that they have extended the deadline for making a decision on whether to prosecute the human right defender by 15 days.

On the afternoon of 21 January 2021, lawyers were allowed to conduct a video conference call with human rights defender Ding Jiaxi for the first time since he was detained in late December 2019. The defender is now detained in Linshu county in Linyi city, Shandong province. The case has now been transferred to the Linyi Municipal Procuratorate, awaiting its decision on whether to prosecute.

The prosecutors informed the lawyers that the charge against Ding Jiaxi has been changed from "inciting subversion" to "subversion", which carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

Ding told his lawyers that he was subjected to torture and ill-treatment, including sleep deprivation and intense, continuous interrogation over a seven-day period during his detention under "residential surveillance in a designated location" (RSDL) in Yantai city, Shandong province. He said he has reported these abuses to the prosecutors who have recorded his complaints in writing.

On 6 November 2020, Ding Jiaxi's defence lawyer telephoned the Linyi Municipal Public Security Bureau to inquire about the status of the case against the defender. The police informed the lawyer that the investigation is still on-going and they cannot say when the case would be transferred to the procuratorate. The investigative period has already been extended twice, but the police refused to say whether they would apply for another extension when the current period ends on 19 November 2020.

The public security authorities have repeatedly rejected applications for bail submitted by Ding Jiaxi's lawyers as well as their requests to meet the defender. Ding Jiaxi has now been held without access to legal counsel for over 315 days.

As of 26 January 2020, four human rights defenders have been held in incommunicado detention for a month. In a cross-provincial operation on 26 December 2019, police from Shandong province arrested human rights defenders Dai Zhenya (戴振亚) in Xiamen, Fujian, Ding Jiaxi (丁家喜) in Beijing, Li Yingjun (李英俊) in Zhangzhou, Fujian, and Zhang Zhongshun (张忠顺) in Yantai, Shandong. Their arrests were part of a year-end crackdown in December 2019 affecting more than 20 human rights defenders across China.

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Dai Zhenya is a member of the New Citizens Movement and has campaigned for greater access to government-held information. He has also participated in activities including delivering meals for political dissidents in detention and organising signature campaigns and public fundraising. Ding Jiaxi is a human rights lawyer and a prominent figure within the New Citizens Movement which campaigned for greater transparency among state officials, greater equality within the education system as well as for constitutional government. Li Yingjun has been involved in activism since 2013 and has campaigned to support other human rights defenders in detention or prison. He is also a member of the “same city movement” where activists residing in the same city gathered and dined on a regular basis to discuss activism and government reforms. Zhang Zhongshun is a former lecturer at the Yantai University in Shandong who has been actively involved in civic activism, including the “same city movement”.

Ding Jiaxi, Dai Zhenya and Zhang Zhongshun are now held incommunicado under “residential surveillance in a designated location” (RSDL) per article 75 of the Criminal Procedure Law (as amended in 2018). Ding Jiaxi, Dai Zhenya and Zhang Zhongshun are held on suspicion of “inciting subversion of State power”, a national security offence under the Criminal Law. The legal basis and conditions of Li Yingjun’s detention are not yet confirmed. Under RSDL, detainees can be held in secret for up to six months. While the law requires the police to notify a RSDL detainee’s family about their detention within 24 hours, it does not explicitly require the police to reveal the exact whereabouts of the detainee. The Public Security Bureau of Yantai City has so far notified the lawyers of Ding Jiaxi, Dai Zhenya and Zhang Zhongshun that pursuant to article 39 of the Criminal Procedure Law they are prohibited from meeting their clients on the ground that doing so would “impede the investigation or expose state secrets” as the three are held on suspicion of “endangering national security”.

In August 2018, UN human rights experts wrote to the Chinese government raising concern that the conditions of detention under RSDL “are analogous to incommunicado and secret detention and tantamount to enforced disappearance”, exposing “those subjected to RSDL to the risk of torture and other inhuman and degrading treatment and other human rights violations.”

Front Line Defenders is deeply concerned about the arbitrary and incommunicado detention of Dai Zhenya, Ding Jiaxi, Li Yingjun and Zhang Zhongshun, especially the three of them who are detained on “national security” charges, and the denial of their access to legal counsel of their choice, which significantly raises the risks of torture and ill-treatment in detention. Front Line Defenders believes that their detention is solely motivated by their peaceful and legitimate work in the defence of human rights.