Three labor activists in China get suspended prison terms

A court in southern China has sentenced three prominent labor organizers to suspended prison terms, human rights groups and a lawyer for one of them said Monday, more than nine months after they were arrested amid a crackdown on civic organizations that work outside the Communist Party.

The activists, who live in the southern province of Guangdong, could still be imprisoned if found guilty of any further offenses, the lawyer, Lai Shengqi, said by telephone.

Zeng Feiyang, was charged with “gathering a crowd to disturb social order” and sentenced to three years with a four-year suspension. The two other organizers, Tang Jian and Zhu Xiaomei, were sentenced to 1 ½ years in prison with two-year suspensions, said William Nee, a China researcher in Hong Kong for Amnesty International.

The sentences for Zhu and Tang, while relatively mild, were surprising because the two had been released on bail.