HONG KONG—Authorities in Beijing have formally charged AIDS activist Hu Jia with "incitement to subversion" after he wrote articles online critical of China's hosting of the Olympics, his lawyers said.
Hu is formally charged with "incitement to subvert state power" and will be tried at the Beijing No.1 Intermediate People's Court Tuesday, his lawyers, Li Jinsong and Li Fangping said.
"On Monday, March 10, a judge telephoned me and said that Hu Jia's case had been sent to the court. He said that he had met with Hu Jia and informed him," Li Jinsong said.
Five permits had been issued for relatives to attend the trial, but Hu's wife Zeng Jinyan, currently under house arrest with her four-month-old baby daughter at the couple's Beijing home, would not be in the public gallery, the lawyers said.
The National Security police told me that Hu's detention came after he had written more than 100 articles, and that this was the problem.
"A court official said that she probably would be refused a pass because she is a witness in this case," Li said.
In a later interview with RFA's Cantonese service, Li said: “Family members have been notified and they will be allowed to sit in. The indictment says he wrote some articles for [overseas-based Chinese news site] Boxun and other overseas Web sites and was also interviewed by reporters."
Hu, a well-known AIDS activist who also suffers from Hepatitis B, was detained Dec. 27 after spending months under virtual house arrest because of his civil rights lobbying..
Hu's arrest came after he published a number of articles online calling for human rights in a campaign that was linked to Beijing's hosting of the Olympics this summer.
Zeng, herself an AIDS activist and blogger who won an award from Paris-based Reporters Without Borders alongside Hu Jia last year, recently posted an audio update on her blog, the first in several weeks.
"The National Security police told me that Hu's detention came after he had written more than 100 articles, and that this was the problem," Zeng said. "Another one told me it was 200, and another said 800. The point being that the sensitivity of the authorities seems to be around the sheer number of articles published by Hu Jia."
She called for Hu's immediate release, and her own release from house arrest.
"We have basically been without freedom since 2004, more or less, shut up at home…Thinking about it really makes me sad now…They are threatening us, using us as hostages…I am really very sad. I am worried about Hu Jia's health," Zeng added.
Zeng's house arrest with her baby daughter has prompted a wave of support among China's netizens, with bloggers vying with each other to get through the tight security cordon at the couple's apartment complex in Bobo Freedom City in Beijing to deliver baby milk formula to Zeng.
Zeng's daughter is said to be suffering from calcium deficiency owing to her long confinement indoors since birth.
Original reporting by Zhang Min in Mandarin and by Lee Kin-kwan in Cantonese. Mandarin service director: Jennifer Chou. Cantonese service director: Shiny Li. Written and produced in English by Luisetta Mudie and Sarah Jackson-Han.
