Former Chinese Pro-Democracy Activist Sentenced to Nine Years in Prison

In China, a former leader of the Tiananmen Square democracy movement was sentenced to nine years in prison last Friday on charges of attempted fraud.

Zhou Yongjun was arrested in Hong Kong in August 2008. He was trying to enter China under a fake Malaysian passport. Hong Kong police handed him over to police in mainland China over a fraud investigation.

But Hong Kong does not have deportation and removal treaty with China, and Zhou’s supporters and Amnesty International are calling his case politically motivated. One of his lawyers said Zhou should not have been tried in China, as the alleged fraud took place in Hong Kong.

The fraud case involved requests to transfer $6 million Hong Kong dollars from a Hong Kong bank account belonging to the name used on Zhou’s fake Malaysian passport.

Zhou says it is a case of mistaken identity. He says he got the passport from an immigration agency—a common practice among Chinese exiles who’ve been denied passport renewal by Chinese authorities.

Zhou was also fined 80,000 yuan. He plans to appeal his conviction.

Zhou won global attention in 1989 for kneeling on the steps of the Great Hall of the People near Tiananmen Square in a plea for political reform.

(NTDTV)