BEIJING (AFP) — Chinese dissident Hu Jia will stand trial next week for subversion, his lawyers said Friday, in a case that is being seen as a litmus test for China's vow to improve human rights ahead of the Olympics.
Hu is facing charges of "incitement to subvert state power" and will be tried on Tuesday morning at the Beijing No 1 Intermediate People's Court, Li Jingsong told AFP.
The Beijing intermediate court handed over the formal indictment and other case documents to Hu's lawyers this week, he said.
An official at the court who picked up the phone on Friday said she had no information on the case, and asked to call back in the afternoon.
Hu's second lawyer, Li Fanping, told AFP the main evidence in the trial would consist of political articles Hu had posted on overseas Chinese language website Boxun, as well as interviews given to foreign journalists in China.
"The prosecution is saying that the articles Hu posted overseas and his interviews to foreign journalists are inciting subversion and harming social order," Li Fanping told AFP.
"Based on the documents and evidence handed over by the court, we will enter a not guilty plea."
Relatives of Hu have asked to be allowed to hear the court proceedings, but his wife, Zeng Jinyan, is unlikely to be allowed into the courtroom because she is a "witness" for the defence, Li said, citing court regulations.
Zeng, a prominent activist in her own right, has been under house arrest at the couple's Beijing home with their infant child since Hu's arrest in late December.
Hu, one of China's most active human rights campaigners, began working as an AIDS volunteer in the 1990s before starting to document rights abuses by the government and police.
Activists and human rights groups have said his detention was part of a crackdown by Beijing on its critics ahead of the Olympics, violating promises it made to win the right to host the Games.
The European Union and the United States have demanded his release.
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