Wife of rights lawyer lambasts guilty plea

BEIJING — Chinese human rights lawyer Xie Yang pleaded guilty Monday to charges of incitement to subversion and disturbing legal proceedings and asked the court to grant him a lenient sentence based on his repentance.

“Everyone should take me as a lesson: You must behave within the boundaries of the law, avoid being used by anti-China Western forces,” he said in a prepared statement read to the court.

The trial in the central city of Changsha was wrapped up by midday without any witnesses called. In a statement, Xie’s wife, Chen Guiqiu, called the entire trial a sham.

“Your play was performed beautifully,” said Chen, who fled to the U.S. with the couple’s two daughters earlier this year. “Changsha Intermediate People’s Court: history will remember your great trial. All the people who participated in Xie Yang’s trial: history will remember all of you!”

Earlier, Xie told the court that he wasn’t tortured or forced into confessing after being detained in a July 2015 government crackdown on the country’s legal professionals.

But in January, Xie gave his lawyer an account saying he had been beaten, deprived of sleep and held in stress positions. The statement said any future confession by Xie would be due to prolonged torture.

Prosecutors told the court that Xie used the encrypted messaging app Telegram to conspire with people inside and outside China to distort incidents of police brutality to subvert state power, overthrow the socialist system and harm national security and social stability, according to an account on the court’s social media site.

The accusations against Xie mirror those brought against other lawyers and activists detained as part of the 2015 crackdown.

With little evidence shown, they have been accused of contacting international news media to spread stories about human rights abuses and of receiving aid and training from overseas rights groups, an indication, prosecutors say, that they sought to destabilize China and smear its government.