Leading Chinese human rights activist Hu Shigen sentenced to over 7 years in jail

Beijing: A prominent Chinese human rights activist was today sentenced to over seven years in prison for subverting state powers, a day after another activist was given a three-year suspended sentence for the same offence.

Hu Shigen has also been deprived of his political rights for five years, the No 2 Intermediate People's Court in Tianjin which conducted the trial said in its verdict.

Hu, 61, pleaded guilty and said he will not appeal.

He had been in prison previously, serving 14 years of a 20 year sentence from 1994 to 2008 for inciting, organising and leading "counter-revolutionary" activities.

His brief trial came a day after the court issued a suspended three-year sentence to activist Zhai Yanmin. Both were arrested in July last year with two others as part of a nationwide crackdown on legal rights activists. About 300 lawyers and activists were initially seized and questioned before most were released.

A further three activists from Zhai's law firm Fengrui, which specialises in human rights cases, are also on trial in Tianjin.