published by: China News Digest, Thursday, December 28, 1995

[CND, 12/28/95] According to a Reuter report, the Beijing Higher People's Court upheld on Thursday a 14-year sentence for WEI Jingsheng. The court spokesman CHEN Xiong said in a telephone interview that "the court upheld the original verdict" and "after this verdict, according to the law, he will be handed over to prison authorities to serve his sentence." CHEN also told Reuter that WEI Jingsheng had attended the hearing at the court in western Beijing, but no further details were given. WEI's family members said earlier that they did not expect the appeals court would provide an open and fair hearing or reverse the verdict meted out earlier this month by the Beijing Number One Intermediate People's Court. WEI Jingsheng filed the appeal last Friday on the last day of the 10-day deadline from receiving the original verdict. Beijing lawyers pointed out that per the current Chinese law, the appeals court had three options -- uphold the lower court verdict and sentence, cut the sentence or order a retrial. The c

ourt reviewed evidence and other documents behind closed doors to decide upholding his sentence for subvision of the government. The court ruled that the period from April 1, 1994, to November 20, 1995, during which WEI was in custody and under investigation, will not be deducted from his 14-year term.

(Bo XIONG, TANG Hong)