BEIJING: A prominent Chinese human rights lawyer was sentenced to two years in prison for “inciting subversion” on Tuesday, the latest jailing in an intensifying crackdown on rights defenders under newly empowered President Xi Jinping.

Germany and human rights groups condemned the jailing of Jiang Tianyong, 46, who had taken on many high-profile cases including those of Falun Gong practitioners, Tibetan protesters and victims of the 2008 contaminated milk powder scandal, before being disbarred in 2009.

Jiang’s sentence is the most high-profile jailing since Xi confirmed his status as China’s most powerful leader in a generation at a Communist Party congress last month.

Jiang sat in court flanked by two police officers as a judge read the sentence and told him he would also be deprived of political rights for three years, according to a video released by the Changsha Intermediate People’s Court.

Published in Dawn, November 22nd, 2017