Lee Ming-Che is standing trial accused of subversion of state power, the first prosecution of a non-profit worker on criminal charges since Beijing passed a law tightening controls over foreign non-governmental organizations. (Taiwan Association for Human Rights via AP)
ABC News
Date: Sep 11, 2017
By: EMILY WANG, ASSOCIATED PRESS
A Taiwanese pro-democracy activist pleaded guilty Monday in a Chinese court to
The Associated Press
In this photo released by Taiwan Association for Human Rights, Lee Ching-yu, right, wife of detained Taiwanese activist Lee Ming-Che, poses for a photo with Wang Li-ping, a former Democratic Progressive Party lawmaker, before entering the Yueyang Intermediate People’s Court in south China’s Hunan province,
subverting the power of the state, but his wife dismissed the trial as “a political show” and his supporters said he had been forced to confess to crimes he didn’t commit.
Lee Ming-che’s trial marked China’s first criminal prosecution of a nonprofit worker since Beijing passed a law tightening controls over foreign non-governmental organizations.
Lee told the court in the central Chinese city of Yueyang that he had “spread articles that maliciously attacked the Communist Party of China, China’s existing system and China’s government.” He said he had also organized people and wrote articles “intended to subvert the state’s power.”
Subversion of state power is a vaguely defined charge often used by authorities to muzzle dissent and imprison critics. The court has not yet announced a punishment for Lee. [FULL STORY]
