China has jailed an activist in its volatile northwestern Xinjiang region for 19 years over online posts criticising the ruling Communist Party and interviews with overseas media, his lawyer said on Friday.
A court in the regional capital Urumqi found Zhang Haitao guilty of “incitement to subvert state power” and “illegally providing intelligence overseas”, his lawyer li Dunyong said.
China regularly jails dissidents who have spoken out against the Communist Party, but observers said the sentence handed down on Sunday was unusually harsh.
Xinjiang, home to the mainly Muslim Uighur minority, has in recent years seen a security crackdown prompted by clashes in the region that have killed hundreds.