Chinese Court Dismisses Dissident's Fraud Conviction - New York Times

BEIJING â€" A Chinese appeals court on Friday threw out a fraud conviction against a human rights activist who has fought on behalf of people evicted from their homes, but it upheld a separate conviction against her for causing a disturbance, her lawyers said.

Andy Wong/Associated Press

Ni Yulan’s public disturbance conviction still stands.

A lower court had ruled that the activist, Ni Yulan, and her husband, Dong Jiqin, acted in an unruly way when they failed to pay for their stay at a hotel â€" where they had been detained by the police â€" and mistreated staff members. It also ruled that Ms. Ni had received money through deceit.

One of her lawyers, Cheng Hai, said the higher court, the Beijing First Intermediate Court, had rescinded the fraud conviction and reduced Ms. Ni’s prison sentence by two months to two years and six months after the person who gave Ms. Ni the money told the court it was a donation.

“We consider it a success,” said Dong Qianyong, another lawyer for Ms. Ni.

Public disturbance convictions against the couple remain, and Dong Jiqin’s two-year sentence handed down by the lower court stands, Mr. Cheng said.

Mr. Cheng said he planned to appeal again for Ms. Ni’s release.

Ms. Ni, who received a law degree from the China University of Political Science and Law, is not as well known internationally as some Chinese dissidents, but she has been the target of “sustained police persecution” for the past decade, according to Chinese Human Rights Defenders, an organization based in Hong Kong.

She had been jailed twice before, first in 2002 and again in 2008 for “obstructing official business” when she tried to use her legal expertise to help neighbors in the capital’s Xicheng district who were fighting eviction. During her detention in 2002, she said, she was kicked and beaten for 15 hours, leaving her unable to walk. She now uses a wheelchair.

Ms. Ni and her supporters say she is being punished for her years of activism, especially her advocacy on behalf of people forced from their homes to make way for the real estate developments that remade Beijing for the 2008 Olympics.

In early 2011, Jon M. Huntsman Jr., then the American ambassador to China, visited Ms. Ni to show support for her. After her earlier sentencing this year, the current American ambassador, Gary Locke, urged Beijing to release her.

The State Department said Ms. Ni’s case was raised this week during the annual human rights dialogue between the United States and China.