Protesting against his arrest and indictment, his lawyers said Ms Zhang had begun a long hunger strike. In response, officers forced her through a feeding tube and restrained her hands from pulling it out.
Ms Jong’s trial lasted less than three hours in Shanghai Pudong People’s Court on Monday. The official charge against which he was convicted was “selection of fights and provoking trouble”, a vague, general charge used against critics of the government. Prosecutors initially recommended a sentence of between four and five years.
Ms Zhang appeared for the hearing in a wheelchair, one of her lawyers, Zhang Ke K, wrote in a press release on Monday. Mr. Zhang wrote in a post a few days ago that he had lost a significant amount of weight and was unrecognizable even a few weeks ago.
During the interrogation, Ms. Zhang simply spoke and wrote that Ms. Zhang was unrelated to Ms. Jang, except to say that people’s speech should not be censored.
After the sentence was announced, Ms Jong’s mother was taken to court for questioning by security officials and was found uncontrollable, said Mr Jong’s attorney, Ren Guanyu.
Since important investigations in China are often conducted behind closed doors, some more have been granted. Prior to the trial, Ms Jong’s reporters and supporters gathered near the courthouse, but were repulsed by security officials. Li Dave, one of Ms Jong’s friends, said she and about 10 others who tried to attend the investigation were taken to a nearby police station.
Chen Jiangong, a Chinese human rights lawyer, said he saw the length of Ms Jong’s sentence as protecting its description of the explosion as a basis for the government to retain its power.
