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SHENZHEN: Five prominent labor activists have returned home more than a year after being arrested in coordinated raids in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, according to people close to them and a Hong Kong-based rights group. .
In a closed-door trial, Zhang Zhiru and Wu Guijun were sentenced to three years in prison, suspended for four years, while Jian Hui, Song Jiahui and He Yuancheng were sentenced to 18 months, suspended for two years, according to the Labor Bulletin. from China. .
While all five were released on April 24, they had to undergo a 14-day quarantine period before finally returning home on Thursday, he said.
His family and friends only found out about his release and sentence once they got home, two people close to Zhang and Wu told Reuters.
The five were originally arrested in January last year and charged with “gathering a crowd to disturb public order,” according to the China Labor Bulletin.
All five had been leading advocates of factory workers’ rights during the 2010s, he said, when the state-run Global Times wrote an article praising Zhang’s efforts in September 2014.
Labor activists in China have come under pressure from the ruling Communist Party, which is deeply suspicious of social organization occurring outside its control. The authorities have intensified their efforts in recent years.
Despite the release of the five, the groups of workers and their former staff continue to be closely monitored, according to sources who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter.
A representative from the Shenzhen courts was unable to provide immediate confirmation or comment by phone on Saturday.
Zhang’s ex-wife Xiao Hongxia said he seemed healthy and “in a good mood” when she visited him on Friday.
“I brought his two sons who haven’t seen him in over a year,” he said. “They were very happy, what son would not be happy to see his father?”
