Chinese Human Rights Lawyer Sentenced To More Than 4 Years In Prison

Li Wenzu, the wife of imprisoned lawyer Wang Quanzhang, reacts before an interview at her home in Beijing. Prominent Chinese human rights lawyer Wang Quanzhang was sentenced on January 28 to four and a half years in prison for state subversion.

GREG BAKER / AFP/Getty Images

A prominent Chinese human rights lawyer has been sentenced to 4 1/2 years in prison for subverting state power.

Wang Quanzhang is known for defending political activists, victims of land seizures and the banned religious group Falun Gong. His wife and former business partners say Wang committed no crime. Human rights groups are condemning the sentence.

Wang was arrested in 2015 as part of a mass incarceration of legal activists. Most of the other activists detained in what is known as the “709 crackdown” — for July 9, the date most of them were taken — have since been sentenced or released. Wang was the last to be sentenced.