Lu, who was arrested in Laos, was charged with “illegally crossing the border” in a closed trial held in southwestern China.
By Qian Lang for RFA Mandarin
Prominent Chinese rights lawyer Lu Siwei, who was arrested and deported from Laos in 2023, was sentenced behind closed doors in China to 11 months in prison on Friday, his wife told Radio Free Asia.
Lu, 52, who was accused of illegal border crossing, plans to appeal the sentence by the Chenghua District Court in Chengdu, southwestern Sichuan province, said his wife Zhang Chunxiao, who lives in the United States. The court also fined him 10,000 yuan ($1,370).
Despite holding a U.S. visa and Chinese passport, Lu was arrested in the Lao capital Vientiane in July 2023 while en route to join his family in America. He was detained in the Southeast Asian country for more than a month, before being forcibly repatriated to China.
An insurance attorney by profession, Lu is well known for taking on many politically sensitive cases, including defending one of the 12 Hong Kong activists jailed in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong after they were caught fleeing by boat to Taiwan in 2020.
He was stripped of his legal license in 2021, banned from international travel, and has faced repeated harassment and constant surveillance for his human rights activities.
Rights campaigners have said his arrest in Laos and forced repatriation illustrates the growing and oppressive reach of Chinese authorities beyond China’s borders, often referred to as transnational repression.
On his arrival in China, Lu was held in Sichuan’s Xindu Detention Center until his release on “bail, pending trial” in late October of 2023. He was formally arrested again a year later, in October 2024, as Chinese authorities sought to move ahead with prosecuting him on charges of illegal border crossing from China to Laos.
Lu’s lawyers on Friday pleaded for a reduction in his sentence, citing time he has previously served during his detention abroad in Laos. But these requests were rejected, his wife said.
When taking into account the six months Lu has served since his detention last year and the three months in 2023, the verdict should also have been announced on the opening day of the trial, said Zhang.
His lawyers now expect Lu will be in prison until at least Aug. 9, after accounting for time served while in detention prior to the closed-door hearing on Friday, she added.
“The lawyers have been fighting for them (the court) to hold a public trial, but on the day of the pre-trial meeting on April 16, I heard that someone who wanted to go to the trial was kicked out,” said Zhang.
On Friday too, no spectator passes were issued and Lu’s friends were barred from attending the trial, she said. Instead, they were “…invited for tea, sent on tours, and given warnings (by police),” she said.
Both uniformed and plainclothes police presence could be seen outside the court, where several police cars had been deployed, a Chengdu activist told RFA. He spoke on the condition of anonymity for safety reasons.
“I saw police and plainclothes officers walking around outside the court, constantly observing passers-by, which made people quite nervous. I didn’t dare to go near the court,” he told RFA.
Edited by Tenzin Pema and Mat Pennington
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