SUSPENDED PRISON TERM FOR ACTIVISTS

Beijing: A Chinese court has given suspended prison sentences to three prominent labour activists citing their involvement with “overseas organisations hostile to China”, an official said on Tuesday. The sentences come as authorities pursue what labour activists have described as an “unprecedented” campaign of arrests against organisers. Zeng Feiyang, director of the high- profile Panyu Workers’ Centre, was on Monday given a three- year sentence suspended for four years. His co- workers Tang Huanxing and Zhu Xiaomei received 18- month sentences suspended for two years, an official with the Panyu District People’s Court in the southern province of Guangdong said. The court convicted the three, who had helped workers with complaints against their bosses, of “ignoring national laws and organising mass gatherings that disturbed social order”, the official Xinhua news agency reported earlier.