Qin Yongmin, one of China’s highest-profile democracy campaigners, has been sentenced to 13 years in jail for “subversion of state power”.

The 64-year-old has already spent a total of 22 years behind bars.

Qin Yongmin had “refused to cooperate with the court” and stayed silent throughout his trial, human rights lawyer Lin Qilei earlier told the AFP.

Image source www.asianews.it

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The dissident is a co-founder of the China Democracy Party, and was handed a 12-year prison term in 1998 after trying to register it officially. A year later, while still in prison, Qin Yongmin was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Qin Yongmin was leading a pro-democracy group called China Human Rights Watch when he was arrested in January 2015. Its activities included organizing discussion groups and criticizing the government’s policies online.