An appeals court in the eastern Chinese province of Shandong has overturned the guilty verdict against leading rights activist Chen Guangcheng, sending the case back to the county-level court for a retrial.
“I got a call this afternoon from the Yinan county court telling me that the Intermediate People’s Court in Linyi had reached a decision regarding Chen Guangcheng’s case and that that decision had already been delivered to the Yinan court for them to implement,” said Chen’s lawye Li Jingsong.
Chen, a social activist who blew the whistle on official abuses under China’s one-child policy, was sentenced by the Yinan County People’s Court on Aug. 24 to four years and three months’ imprisonment for “willfully damaging property and organizing a mob to disturb traffic.”[Full Text]