On Thursday, Beijing’s Np Two intermediate people’s court handed down the harsher-than-expected sentence to Mr Xia in what the Chinese Human Rights Defenders group has called a ‘severe retaliation against human rights advocates who defend the rule of law.’ Mr Xia was arrested on fraud charges in 2014 and has been on trial since July. The court ordered him to serve 12 years in prison after finding him guilty of fraudulently obtaining around £550,000 in order to pay off gambling debts. Mr Xia’s supporters, however, claim that Beijing trumped up the charges against Mr Xia as punishment for his decision to represent several high-profile dissidents.

High-profile clients

Mr Xia’s lawyer, Ding Xikui, has said that his client believes the fraud charges and prison sentence in direct retaliation to his legal representation of activists Guo Yushan, who was arrested in 2014 for voicing support for pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. Though Mr Xia’s representation of high-profile Chinese clients including dissident artist Ai Weiwei and prominent free speech advocate Pu Zhiqiang has won him international prominence, the lawyer is generally considered to be one of the more moderate, understated members of China’s human and civil rights legal community.

Human Rights Watch researcher Maya Wang commented: ‘The sentence is shocking, not only because of its length, but also because it was handed down to a rights lawyer who has tried to protect himself by deliberately taking a low-profile, technical approach to his work.’ Mr Ding has already confirmed that Mr Xia plans to appeal the sentence.

Sources: The Guardian; BBC; Financial Times