Veteran Chinese dissident journalist Gao Yu goes on trial in Beijing
Gao Yu pleads not guilty in Beijing court to revealing state secrets
PUBLISHED : Friday, 21 November, 2014, 9:35am
UPDATED : Saturday, 22 November, 2014, 3:20am
Adrian Wan [email protected]
Police patrol outside Beijing's No.3 Intermediate People's Court on November 21, 2014. Photo: Simon Song
Gao Yu, one of the mainland’s most respected and outspoken journalists, has defended herself in court against allegations she revealed state secrets.
On trial in Beijing’s No 3 Intermediate People’s Court, Gao pleaded not guilty and “showed clear thinking in presenting her defence”, her lawyer Shang Baojun said after the hearing.
“We had an ordinary court proceeding today which gave hearing to the prosecution and defendant…But there’s no verdict today,” Shang said.
“She gave a detailed account of her defence in court denying she was guilty.”
If convicted, Gao faces possible life imprisonment.
Chinese journalist Gao Yu. Photo: SCMP Pictures
She is accused under article 111, which stipulates fixed-length prison terms of between five and ten years for anyone “who steals, spies on, buys or illegally provides state secrets or intelligence for an agency, organisation or individual outside the country”.
However, the article also says that serious cases can warrant prison terms of between ten years and life imprisonment; in minor cases sentences of less than five years are possible.
Shang said he expected a verdict within the next two weeks.
A heavy police presence surrounded the court in the north of the capital this morning, with all passersby facing identity checks. Journalists were told to leave.
Gao, 70, who suffers from high blood pressure and heart disease, has been detained since April 24 on suspicion of “leaking state secrets abroad” – reportedly by passing on a confidential Communist Party document. Her son, Zhao Meng, was detained on the same charge but later released.
About a dozen uniformed police and plain-clothes officers forced several journalists stationed about 500 metres from the court to leave.
Some people concerned about the trial have shown up to show support for Gao.
A police vehicle outside Beijing No 3 Intermediate People’s Court. Photo: Adrian Wan
“There’s nothing much we can do, but I thought I’d come by and look on,” said one man, who asked not to be named.
State-run China Central Television and Xinhua said in May that police had seized a large amount of “important evidence” at her home. Footage of Gao making a confession and expressing “deep remorse” was aired on CCTV.
But her lawyer, Mo Shaoping, said earlier this week that Gao had told judges and prosecutors at a pre-trial meeting on Monday that she was forced to confess when threats were made against her son.
Known for her hard-hitting and critical commentaries on senior party leaders, Gao, who has spent seven years in total in jail for her political writing, is one of a number of intellectuals and activists who were detained ahead of the 25th anniversary of the crackdown on the Tiananmen pro-democracy movement.
She was also picked up by security agents on the eve of the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown and locked up for 15 months. The official report by Beijing mayor Chen Xitong on the suppression of the protest movement credited a pro-reform article by Gao as setting the “political programme for unrest and rebellion”.
In 1993, Gao was sentenced to six years in jail, also for leaking state secrets.
