Shenzhen Worker Sentenced to 1.5 Years for Subversion of State Power

The Shenzhen Intermediate Court declaredtwenty-year old migrant worker Xue Mingkai (薛明凯) guilty of"subversion of state power" in a public hearing on February 10 andsentenced him to one and a half years in prison. Xue was tried onSeptember 10,2009, with an additional hearing on December 14, 2009. He was chargedwith"subversion" after allegedly planning to organize a political partycalled the “China Democratic Workers’ Party” with online friends in thesummerof 2006 and then contacting and joining an overseas democracyorganization inearly 2009. He has been detained since May 9, 2009.  Xue,who is originally from ShandongProvince'sQufu City, was working in Shenzhen asasecurity guard prior to his detention, and, according to his mother,wasdiagnosed with serious depression and features of schizomania in July2006.(CHRD)(i)

i "Shandong Youth Xue Mingkai Sentenced to a Year and aHalf inPrison for 'Subversion of State Power'" (山东青年薛明凯被判“颠覆国家政权罪”成立，获刑一年半), February 10, 2010, http://www.crd-net.org/Article/Class53/201002/20100210160620_19878.html