After a trial in October 2024, human rights activist lawyer Yu Wensheng appealed against his three-year prison sentence for “inciting subversion of state power.” On January 6, 2025, the Suzhou Intermediate People’s Court rejected his appeal.
Yu Wensheng’s wife and activist Xu Yan was sentenced to one year and nine months in prison for the same offense and is set to be released in January 2025.
The couple, both well-known activists in China, have been charged and detained on numerous occasions. At the beginning of 2024, they were transferred to Suzhou Detention Center in Jiangsu province.
Xu Yan has reportedly lost 14kg since being detained, and the conditions of her detention in Beijing may have amounted to torture or other ill-treatment.
Xu and Yu’s son, who turned 18 just before their detention, has since faced a serious deterioration of his mental health. His parents’ transfer to Suzhou has exacerbated his isolation. According to Yan, police threatened to arrest her son if Yu Wensheng undertook advocacy on their cases.
Amnesty International defines the couple’s imprisonment as baseless—their actions protected by the right to freedom of expression. The organization calls for immediate release.
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