A COURT yesterday sentenced the prominent dissident and former student leader. Wang Dan, to 11 years in prison for plotting to overthrow the Chinese government. The verdict was denounced by human rights activists. The pro democracy activist told his family during a 30 minute meeting after the trial that he wanted to appeal.
The Beijing Number One mediate People's Court took just four hours to deliver the latest in a series of hammer blows to China's tiny democracy movement.
Mr Wang (27) was found guilty of conspiring to subvert the Chinese government, sentenced to 11 years in prison and deprived of his political rights for a further two years. His mother, a 61 year old museum researcher who has no background in law, attended the trial as one of two defence lawyers.
The heavy sentence represents a new harshness on the part of Beijing in dealing with student dissidents. Before this they were regarded as having been treated with relative leniency compared to older dissident figures.
When I met Wang Dan, he already sensed that the secret police were closing in and that his days of freedom were drawing to an end. Our hastily arranged meeting took place at a secret location and he arrived disguised. He explained that he had to change his mode of transport several times.
A soft spoken and deeply analytical young man he did not give the impression of being a radical revolutionary. Indeed, when we spoke of Tiananman Square and his part in leading the student protests, he seemed full of sadness.
"I have a deep sense of guilt about what happened which has haunted me for six years. If I knew that a lot of people would have lost their lives then I'd rather not have been involved in leading the movement".
But he remained a defiant prodemocracy advocate. "The value of a movement like ours is in its strength. You never give up fighting".
When I asked if that involved the sacrificing of one's own life to the struggle, he replied: "If the choice is between life and freedom I will choose freedom always. Only in this way can the value of life and existence be realised".
Several weeks later Wang Dan signed a petition along with leading intellectuals calling for a reevaluation of the 1989 prodemocracy protests. He was arrested shortly afterwards. Ironically, he had indicated that he believed any future protests would come from the grassroots population rather than students like himself. The seriousness of any such explosion would be "hard to predict" because it would not be led by ideals or beliefs. It could happen in a "very irrational and chaotic way," he feared.