New York: A leading international human rights watchdog has asked China to drop charges of subversion against a prominent activist and urged countries sending athletes to the Olympics to publicly demand his release. Hu Jia, who is currently under trial for "incitement to subvert state power", was detained by the Communist regime in December last year, but Human Rights Watch (HRW) said it was a case of suppression of freedom of expression, which is protected under international law. The organisation also insisted that Jia did not get a free trial which would meet minimum standards of fairness.

Jia s trial is scheduled to begin in Beijing today. He faces upto five years in prison if convicted. His lawyers say he plans to plead not guilty and his wife Zeng Jinyan, who is confined to their house since his arrest, will not be allowed to attend the trial.

"Hu Jia s case has been marked by grave rights violations from the outset," Sophie Richardson, Asia advocacy director at Human Rights Watch, said. "His arrest was political, the charges are political, and his trial is political," she said, adding Jia s only crime was to warn of the tightening chokehold on dissent ahead of the Olympic Games.

In a statement released here yesterday, the HRW accused the Chinese government of repeatedly violating the rights of Jia and claimed that his trial did not meet minimum standards of fairness.

Hu, it said, was taken from his home by the police on December 27,2007,shortly after he gave live audio testimony to the European Parliament. In that testimony, he expressed his desire for 2008 to be "the year of human rights in China."

Source : PTI