Chinese lawyer wins iconic status after conviction based on tweets

A prominent human rights lawyer named Pu Zhiqiang is becoming famous in the PRC, particularly now that he has been convicted of inciting ethnic hatred and disrupting public order.

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The 50-year old is becoming a celebrity in his country, having defended artist Ai Weiwei and many ordinary workers in human rights cases. He has received a suspended three-year sentence because of seven tweets he posted that were critical of some government officials and their policies. 

One of China's most famous dissidents

William Nee of Amnesty International said: 'This guilty verdict effectively shackles one of China’s bravest champions of human rights from practising law. Despite investigating Pu for so long, the only ‘evidence’ the authorities could muster against him were seven social media posts.' The Financial Times says that Mr Pu 'ranks among China’s most famous dissidents alongside Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo, fellow rights activist Xu Zhiyong and academic Ilham Tohti'. Source: Financial Times

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